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of tbr
antoersitp of Jl3ott& Carolina
Collection of ji2ontj CaroUntana
" C37O.03
UNIVERSITY OF N C AT CHAPEL HILL
00030748834
This book must- not
be token from the
Library building.
• —
—
THIS TITLE HAS!
BEEN Iv.lCROOtkEg
MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
JAM ES M< >< >Xi;V
EXTRACT FROM THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL I;l PORT OF THE
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
WAS II IN (.ION
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
L9 02
Library, Univ. of
North Carolina
MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
JAMES MOONEY
CONTENTS
Page
I — Introduction 11
II — Historical sketch of the Cherokee 14
The traditionary period 14
The period of Spanish exploration — 1540-? 23
The Colonial and Revolutionary period — 1654-1784 29
Relations with the United States 61
From the first treaty to the Removal— 1785-1S38 (il
The Removal— 1838-1839 130
The Arkansas band— 1817-1838 135
The Texas hand— 1817-1900 L43
The Cherokee Nation of the AVest— 1840-1900 146
The East Cherokee— 1838-1900 157
III — Notes to the historical sketch 182
IV — Stories and story-tellers _ 229
V— The myths 239
Cosmogonic myths 239
1. How the world was made 239
2. The first fire 240
3. Kana'ti and Selu: Origin of corn and game 242
4. Origin of disease and medicine 250
5. The Daughter of the Sun : Origin of death 252
6. How they brought back the Tobacco 254
7. The journey to the sunrise 255
8. The Moon and the Thunders 256
9. What the Stars are like 257
10. Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine 258
11. The milky way 259
12. Origin of strawl perries 259
13. The Great Yellow-jacket: Origin of fish and frogs 260
14. The Deluge 261
Quadruped myths . . . .• 261
15. The four-tooted tribes 261
16. The Rabbit goes duck hunting 266
1 7. How the Rabbit stole the Otter's coat 267
IS. "Why the Possum's tail is bare 269
19. How the Wildcat caught the turkeys 269
20. How the Terrapin beat the Rabbit 270
21. The Rabbit and the tar wolf 271
22/ The Rabbit and the P >ssum after a wife 273
2::. The Rabl.it dines the Bear 273
24. The Rabbit escapes from the wolves 274
25. Flint visits the Rabbit 274
26. How the Deer got his horns 275
27. Why the Deer's teeth are blunt 276
2s. What became of the Rabbit 277
29. Why the Mink smells 277
30. Why the Mole lives under ground 277
6 CONTENTS [ETH.ANN.19
\ The rnythi — ( kmtinued.
Quadruped myths — Continued. ra s>-'
31 The Terrapin's escape from the wolves 278
:;•_'. Origin of the Groundhog dance: The Groundhog's head 279
33 The migration of the animals 280
34. The Wolf's revenge: The Wolf and the Dog - 280
Bird myths 280
35. The 1 »ird t ribes 280
36. The ball game of the birds and animals 286
37. How the Turkey got his beard 287
38. Why the Turkey gobbles 288
39. How the Kingfisher got his bill 288
-10. How the Partridge got his whistle 289
41. How the Etedbird got his color 289
4l'. The Phi asant beating corn: The Pheasant ■lane.' 290
4:;. The race between the ( Irane and the Humming-bird 290
44. The Owl gets married 291
4.".. The Huhu gets married 292
46. Why the Buzzard's head i^ bare 29.",
47. The Eagle's revenge 293
4s. The Hunter and the Buzzard 294
Snake, fish, ami insect myths 294
49. The snake tribe 294
50. The Uktenaand the riufisu'ti 297
51. A.gan-Uni'tsi's search for the Uktena 298
52. The Red Man and the Uktena 300
53. The Hunter and the Oksu'hl 301
54. The Tstu'tli 302
55. The Uw'tsufi'ta 303
56. Tl ie Snake Boy 304
57. The Snake Man 304
58. The Rattlesnake's vengeance - 305
59. The smaller reptiles, fishes, and insects 306
60. Why the Bullfrog's head is striped 310
61. The Bullfrog lover 310
62. The Katydid's warning 311
Wonder stories 311
63. rntsaiyi'. the Gambler , 311
64. The nest of theTla'nuwa 315
65. The Hunter and the Tla'nuwa 316
66. r'tlufi'ta. the Spear-finger 316
07. Xun'yunu'wl, the stone man 319
68. The Hunter in the Dakwa' 320
69. A-taga'M, the enchanted lake 321
To. The Bride from the south 322
71 . The Ice Man t 322
72. The Hunter and Selu 323
73. The underground [■anthers 32 1
74. The Tsundige'wl 325
75. i >rigin of the I '.ear: The Bear songs 325
To. The Bear Man 327
77. TheGreat Leech of Tlanusi'yl.. 329
78. The Xunne'hi and other spirit folk 330
70. The removed townhouses 335
moonev.] CONTENTS 7
V— Tlie myths— Continued.
Wonder stories — Continued. Page
80. The spirit defenders of Nikwasi' 336
8 1 . TsuikaliV, the slant-eyed giant 337
82. Kana'sta, the lust settlement 341
83. Tsuwe'nahi, a legend of Pilot knob 843
84. The man who married the Thunder's sister 345
85. The haunted whirlpool 347
sii. Yahula :;47
87. The water cannibals 349
Historical traditions . 350
, ss. First contact with whites 350
89. The Iroquois wars :;:, i
90. Hiadeoni, the Seneca 356
91. The two Mi .hawks 357
92. Escape of the Seneca boys 359
9.'!. The unseen helpers 359
94. Hatcinondon's escape from the Cherokee 362
95. Hemp-carrier. :;<;4
'.hi The Seneca peacemakers 365
97. Origin of the Yontonwisas .lance '365
us. i ra'na's adventures among the Cherokee 367
99. The Shawano wars 370
100. The raid on Tikwali'tsI 374
101. The last Shawano invasion :;74
102. The false warriors of Chilhowee 375
103. ( Wee town :;77
104. The eastern tribes _ 378
105. The southern and western tribes 382
100. The giants from the west 391
107. The lost Cherokee , 391
108. The massacre of the Ani'-Kuta'nl 392
109. The war medicine 393
110. Incidents of personal heroism :;:i|
111. The mounds and the constant lire: The old sacred things 395
Miscellaneous myths and legends 397
Ul'. The ignorant housekeeper :i'.i7
113. The man in the stump _ 397
114. Two lazy hunters 397
115. The two old men 399
116. The star feathers 399
117. Th,' Mother Bear's song 400
118. Baby song, to please tin- children 401
119. When babies are born: The Wren and the ( Iricket 401
120. The Raven Mocker 401
121. Herbert's spring 403
1-".'. Local legends i 4' North Carolina 404
123. Local legends of South Carolina 411
124. Local legends- of Tennessee 412
125. Local legends of t ieorgia 415
1 26. Plant lore 420
VI— Notes and parallels 42s
VII— Glossary 506
ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate I. In the Cherokee mountains 11
IT. Map: The Cherokee and their neighbors 14
III. Map: The old Cherokee country 23
IV. Sequi .ya | Sikwayl ) ' 108
V. The Chen ikee alphabet 112
VI. Tahchee (Tilts!) or Dutch 140
VII. Spring-fn ig or Ti x lantuh ( Du'stu') 142
VIII. John Ross (Gu'wisguwl') 150
IX. ColonelW. II. Thomas (Wil-Usdi') 160
X. Chief N. J. Smith (Tsaladihl') 178
XI. Swimmer (A'yuiVini ) 22S
XII. John Ax (ItagiYnuhl) 238
XIII. Tagwadihl' 256
XIV. A yasta 272
XV. Sawanu'gl, a Cherokee l>all player 284
XVI. NlkwasI' mound at Franklin, North Carolina 337
X VII. Annie Ax ( Sac lay! ) 358
XVII 1. YValini', a< Iherokee woman 378
XIX. On Oconaluftee river 405
XX. Petroglyphs at Track-rock gap, Georgia 4 IS
Figure 1. Feather wand of Eagle dance 2S2
2. Ancient Iroquois wampum 1 celts 354
9
MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
By James Mooney
I— INTRODUCTION
The myths given in this paper are part of a large body of material
collected among the Cherokee, chiefly in successive field seasons from
1887 to L890, inclusive, and comprising more or less extensive notes,
together with original Cherokee manuscripts, relating to the history,
archeology, geographic nomenclature, personal names, botany, medi-
cine, arts, home life, religion, songs, ceremonies, and language of the
tribe. It is intended that this material shall appear from time to
time in a series of papers which, when finally brought together, shall
constitute a monograph upon the Cherokee Indians. This paper may
be considered the first of the series, all that has hitherto appeared
being a short paper upon the sacred formulas of the tribe, published
in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau in 1891 and containing a
synopsis of the Cherokee medico-religious theory, with twenty-eight
specimens selected from a body of about six hundred ritual formulas
written down in the Cherokee language and alphabet by former
doctors of the tribe and constituting altogether the largest body of
aboriginal American literature in existence.
Although the Cherokee arc probably the largest and most impor-
tant tribe in the Tinted States, having their own national government
and numbering at any time in their history from 20,000 to 25,000 per-
sons, almost nothing has yet been written of their history or general
ethnology, as compared with the literature of such northern tribes as
the Delawares, the Iroquois, or the Ojibwa. The difference is due to
historical reasons which need not be discussed here.
It might seem at first thought that the Cherokee, with their civi-
lized code of laws, their national press, their schools and seminaries,
are so far advanced along the white man's road as to offer but little
inducement for ethnologic study. This is largely true of those in the
Indian Territory, with whom the enforced deportation, two generations
ago, from accustomed scenes and surroundings did more at a single
stroke to obliterate Indian ideas than could have been accomplished
11
12 MYTHS OF THE OHEBOKEE [bth.aiw.19
by fifty years of slow development. There remained behind, however,
in the bearl of the Carolina mountains, :i considerable body, outnum-
bering todaj such well-known western tribes as the Omaha, Pawnee,
Comanche, and Kiowa, and it is among these, the old conservative
Kitn'hwa < 'lenient, that t lie ancient things have been preserved. Moun-
taineers guard well the past, and in the secluded forests of Xantahala and
Oconaluftee, faraway from the main-traveled road of modern progress,
the Cherokee priest still treasures the Legends and repeats the mystic
rituals handed down from his ancestors. There is change indeed in
dress and outward seeming, but the heart of the Indian is still his own.
For this and other reasons much the greater portion of the material
herein contained has been procured among the East Cherokee living
upon the Qualla reservation in western North Carolina and in various
detached settlements between the reservation and the Tennessee line.
This has been supplemented with information obtained in the Cherokee
Nation in Indian Territory, chiefly from old men and women who
had emigrated from what is now Tennessee and Georgia, and who
consequently had a better local knowledge of these sections, as well as
of the history of the western Nation, than is possessed by their kindred
in Carolina. The historical matter and the parallels are, of course,
collated chiefly from printed sources, but the myths proper, with but
few exceptions, are from original investigation.
The historical sketch must be understood as distinctly a sketch, not
a detailed narrative, for which there is not space in the present paper.
The Cherokee have made deep impress upon the history of the southern
states, and no more has been attempted here than to give the leading-
facts in connected sequence. As the history of the Nation after the
removal to the West and the reorganization in Indian Territory pre-
sents but few points of ethnologic interest, it has been but briefly
treated. On the other hand the affairs of the eastern band have been
discussed at some length, for the reason that so little concerning this
remnant is to be found in print.
One of the chief purposes of ethnologic study is to trace the
development of human thought under varying conditions of race and
environment, the result showing always that primitive man is essen-
tially the same in every part of the world. With this object in view
a considerable space has been devoted to parallels drawn almost entirely
from Indian tribes of the United States and British America. For
the southern countries there is but. little trustworthy material, and to
extend the inquiry to the eastern continent and the islands of the sea
would be to invite an endless task.
The author desires to return thanks for many favors from the
Library of Congress, the Geological Survey, and the Smithsonian
Institution, and for much courteous assistance and friendly suggestion
from the officers and stall' of the Bureau of American Ethnology; and
mooney] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 13
tn acknowledge his indebtedness to the late Chief N. J. Smith and
family for services as interpreter and for kindly hospitality during
successive field seasons: to Agent H. W. Spray and wife for unvarying
kindness manifested in many helpful ways; to Mr William Harden,
librarian, and the Georgia State Historical Society, for facilities in
consulting documents at Savannah, Georgia; to the late Col. W. H.
Thomas: Lieut. Col. W. W. Stringfield, of Waynesville; ( 'apt. James W.
Terrell, of Webster; .Mrs A. C. Avery and Dr P. L. Murphy, of Mor-
ganton; Mr W. A. Fair, of Lincolnton; the late Maj. James Bryson, of
Dillsboro; Mr II. G. Trotter, of Franklin: Mr Sibbald Smith, of Chero-
kee; Maj. R.C.Jackson, of Smithwood, Tennessee; Mr D. R. Dunn,
of Conasauga, Tennessee: the late Col. Z. A. Zile, of Atlanta: Mr L.
M.Greer, of Ellijay, Georgia: Mr Thomas Robinson, of Portland.
Maine; Mr Allen Ross, Mr W. T. Canup, editor of the Indian Arrow,
and the officers of the Cherokee Nation. Tahlequah, Indian Territory;
Dr D. T. Day, United States Geological Survey. Washington, D. C,
and Prof. G. M. Bowers, of the United States Fish Commission, for
valuable oral information, letters, clippings, and photographs; to Maj.
J. Adger Smyth, of Charleston. S. C, for documentary material;
to Mr Stansbury Hagar and the late Robert Grant Haliburton, of
Brooklyn. N. Y., for the use of valuable manuscript notes upon
Cherokee stellar legends; to Miss A. M. Brooks for the use of valuable
Spanish document copies and translations entrusted to the Bureau
of American Ethnology; to Mr James Blythe, interpreter during a
great part of the time spent by the author in the field; and to various
Cherokee and other informants mentioned in the body of the work,
from whom the material was obtained.
II HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CHEROKEE
The Traditionary Period
The Cherokee were the mountaineers of the South, holding the
entire Allegheny region from the interlocking bead-streams of the
Kanawha and the Tennessee southward almost to the site of Atlanta,
and from the Blue ridge on the east to the Cumberland range on the
west, a territory comprising an area of about 40,000 square miles,
now included in the states of Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Their principal towns were upon
the headwaters of the Savannah. Hiwassee, and Tuckasegee, and along
the whole length of the Little Tennessee to its junction with the main
stream. Itsati, or Echota, on the south hank of the Little Tennessee, a
few miles above the mouth of Tellico river, in Tennessee, was commonly
considered the capital of the Nation. As the advancing whites pressed
upon them from the east and northeast the more exposed towns were
destroyed or abandoned and new settlements were formed lower down
the Tennessee and on the upper branches of the Chattahoochee and
the Coosa.
As is always (he ease with tribal geography-, there were no fixed
boundaries, and on every side the Cherokee frontiers were contested
by rival claimants. In Virginia, there is reason to believe, the tribe
was held in check in early days by the Powhatan and the Monacan.
On the east and southeast the Tuscarora and Catawba were their invet-
erate enemies, with hardly even a momentary truce within the historic
period; and evidence goes to show that the Sara or Cheraw were fully
as hostile. On the south there was hereditary war with the Creeks,
who claimed nearly the whole, of upper Georgia as theirs by original
possession, but who were being gradually pressed down toward the
Gulf until, through the mediation of the United States, a treaty was
finally made fixing the boundary between the two tribes along a line
running about due west from the mouth of Broad river on the Savan-
nah. Toward the west, the Chickasaw on the lower Tennessee and the
Shawano on the Cumberland repeatedly turned back the tide of Chero-
kee invasion from the rich central valleys, while the powerful Iroquois
in the far north set up an almost unchallenged claim of paramount
lordship from the Ottawa river of Canada southward at Least to the
Kentucky river.
14
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL II
uooney] TRIBAL NAMES 15
On the other hand, by their defeat of the ("reeks and expulsion <>f
the Shawano, the Cherokee made good the claim which they asserted
to all the lands from upper Georgia to the Ohio river, including the
rich hunting grounds of Kentucky. Holding as they did the great
mountain harrier between the English settlements on the coast and the
French or Spanish garrisons along the Mississippi and the Ohio, their
geographic position, no less than their superior number, would have
given them the balance of power in the South but for a looseness of
tribal organization in striking contrast to the compactness of the Iro-
quois league, by which for more than a century the French power
was held in check in the north. The English, indeed, found it con-
venient to recognize certain chiefs as supreme in the tribe, but the only
real attempt to weld the whole Cherokee Nation into a political unit
was that made by the French agent, Priber, about 1 TMtJ. which failed
from its premature discovery by the English. We frequently find
their kingdom divided against itself, their very number preventing
unity of action, while still giving them an importance above that
of neighboring tribes.
The proper name by which the Cherokee call themselves (l) 1 is
Yuii'wiya'. or Ani'-Yun'wiya' in the third person, signifying •"real
people," or " principal people." a word closely related toOnwe-hofiwe,
the name by which the cognate Iroquois know themselves. The word
properly denotes "Indians," as distinguished from people of other
races, but in usage it is restricted to mean members of the Cherokee
tribe, those of other tribes being designated as Creek, Catawba, etc.,
as the case may be. On ceremonial occasions they frequently speak of
themselves as Ani'-Kitu'hwagi, or "people of Kitu'hwa," an ancient
settlement on Tuckasegee river and apparently the original nucleus of
the tribe. Among the western Cherokee this name has been adopted
by a secret society recruited from the full-blood element and pledged
to resist the advances of the white man's civilization. Under the
various forms of Cuttawa, Gattochwa, Kittuwa. etc.. as spelled by dif-
ferent authors, it was also used by several northern Algonquian tribes
as a synonym for Cherokee.
Cherokee, the name by which they are commonly known, has no
meaning in their own language, and seems to be of foreign origin.
As used among themselves the form is Tsa'lagi' or Tsa'ragi'. It first
appears as Chalaque in the Portuguese narrative of De Soto's expedi-
tion, published originally in L557, while we rind Cheraqui in a French
document of 1699, and Cherokee as an English form as early, at 'east, as
1708. The name has thus an authentic history of 360 years. There
is evidence that it is derived from the Choctaw word choluk or chiluk,
signifying a pit or cave, and comes to us through the so-called Mobilian
trade language, a corrupted Choctaw jargon formerly used as the
1 gee the notes !" the historical sketch.
16 MYTHS OE THE CHEROKEE [bth.ahh.19
medium of coi unication among all the tribes of the < rulf states, as
fax north as the mouth of the < >hio (2). Within iliis area many of the
tribes were commonly known under Choctaw names, even though <>t'
widerj differing Linguistic stocks, ami if such a name existed for the
Cherokee it must undoubtedly have been communicated to the first
Spanish explorers by I >e Soto's interpreters. This theory is borne
out by their Iroquois (Mohawk) name, Oyata'geronon', as given by
Hewitt, signifying "inhabitants of the cave country," the Allegheny
region being peculiarly a cave country, in which "rock shelters," con-
taining numerous traces of Indian occupancy, are of frequent occur-
rence. Their Catawba name also. Manteran, as given by Gatschet,
signifying "coming out of the ground," seems to contain the same
reference. Adair's attempt to connect the name Cherokee with their
word for &re,atsila, is an error founded upon imperfect knowledge of
the Language.
Among other synonyms for the tribe are Rickahockan, or Recna-
hecrian, the ancient Powhatan name, and Tallige', or Tallige'wi, the
ancient name used in the Walam Olum chronicle of the' Lenape'. Con-
cerning both the application and the etymology of this last name there
has been much dispute, but there seems no reasonable doubt as to the
identity of the people.
Linguistically the Cherokee belong to the Iroquoian stock, the
relationship having been suspected by Barton over a century ago, and
by Gallatin and Hale at a later period, and definitely established by
Hewitt in 1887. ] While there can now be no question of the connec-
tion, the marked lexical and grammatical differences indicate that the
separation must have occurred at a very early period. As is usually
the case with a large tribe occupying an extensive territory, the lan-
guage is spoken in several dialects, the principal of which may. for
want of other names, be conveniently designated as the Eastern. Middle,
and Western. Adair's classification into "Aviate" (.'///<//), or low, and
"Ottare" (d'taM), or mountainous, must be rejected as imperfect.
The Eastern dialect, formerly often called the Lower Cherokee
dialect, was originally spoken in all the towns upon the waters of the
Keowee and Tugaloo, head-streams of Savannah river, in South Caro-
lina ami the adjacent portion of Georgia. Its chief peculiarity is a
rolling /'. which takes the place of the / of the other dialects. In
this dialect the tribal name is Tsa'ragi', which the English settlers of
Carolina corrupted to Cherokee, while the Spaniards, advancing from
the south, became better familial' with the other form, which they
wrote as Chalaque. Owing to their exposed frontier position, adjoin-
ing the white settlements of Carolina, the Cherokee of this division
'Barton, Ben}. 8., New Views on the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, p. xlv, passim;
Phils ., I7'.i7; Qallatfn, Albert, synopsis of Indian Tribes, Trana American Antiquarian Society, n, p.
'.il: Cambridge, 1836; Hew iit. .1. X. B., The Cherokee an Iroquoian Language, Washington, 1887 i Ms
In the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnologj
t MYl DIALECTS RELATED TRIBES 17
were the first to feel the shock of war in the campaigns of L760 and
1776. with the result that before the close of the Revolution they had
been completely extirpated from their original territory and scattered
as refugees among the more western towns of the tribe. The con-
sequence was that they lost their distinctive dialect, which is now
practically extinct. In 1888 it was spoken by but one man on the
reservation in North Carolina.
The Middle dialect, which might properly be designated the Kituhwa
dialect, was originally spoken in the towns on the Tuckasegee and the
headwaters of the Little Tennessee, in the very heart of the Cherokee
country, and is still spoken by the great majority of those now living on
the Qualla reservation. In some of its phonetic forms it agrees with
the Eastern dialect, but resembles the Western in having the / sound.
The Western dialect was spoken in most of the towns of east Ten-
nessee and upper Georgia and upon Hiwassee and Cheowa rivers in
North Carolina. It is the softest and most musical of all the dialects
of this musical language, having a frequent liquid / and eliding many
of the harsher consonants found in the other forms. It is also the
literary dialect, and is spoken by most of those now constituting the
Cherokee Nation in the West.
Scattered among the other Cherokee are individuals whose pronun-
ciation and occasional peculiar terms for familiar objects give indica-
tion of a fourth and perhaps a fifth dialect, which can not now be
localized. It is possible that these differences may come from for-
eign admixture, as of Natchez. Taskigi, or Shawano blood. There is
some reason for believing that the people living on Nantahala river
differed dialectically from their neighbors on either side (;:).
The Iroquoian stock, to which the Cherokee belong, had its chief
home in the north, its tribes occupying a compact territory winch
comprised portions of Ontario, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania,
and extended down the Susquehanna and ( Jhesapeake bay almost to the
latitude of Washington. Another body, including the Tuscarora,
Nottoway, and perhaps also the Meherrin. occupied territory in north-
eastern North Carolina and the adjacent portion of Virginia. The
( 'herokee themselves constituted the third and southernmost bodj . It
is evident that tribes of common stock must atone time have occupied
contiguous territories, and such we find to be the case in this instance.
The Tuscarora and Meherrin. and presumably also the Nottoway, are
known to have come from the north, while traditional and historical
evidenee'eoncur in assigning to the Cherokee as their early home the
region about the headwaters of the Ohio, immediately to the south-
ward of their kinsmen, but bitter enemies, the Iroquois. The theory
which brings the Cherokee from northern Iowa and the Iroquois from
Manitoba is unworthy of serious consideration. (4)
The most ancient tradition concerning the Cherokee appears to be
iy etii— 01 2
18 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE i unr.U
the Delaware tradition of the expulsion of the Talligewi from the north,
:i- firsl noted by the missionary Heckewelder in L819, and published
more l'ull\ by Brinton in the Walam Olum in L885. According t<>
the firsl account, the Delawares, advancing from the west, found their
further progress opposed by a powerful people called Alligewi or Tal-
ligcw i. occupying the country upon a river which Heckewelder thinks
identical with the Mississippi, but which the sequel shows was more
probably the upper Ohio. They wen' said to have regularly built
earthen fortifications, in which they defended themselves so well
that at la-t the Delawares were obliged to seek the assistance of the
"Mengwe,"or Iroquois, with the result that aftera warfare extending
over many years the Alligewi finally received a crushing defeat, the
survivors fleeing down the river and abandoning the country to the
invaders, who thereupon parceled it out amongst themselves, the
■* Mengwe" choosing the portion a I unit the I rreal lakes while the Dela-
wares took possession of that to the south and cast. The missionary
adds that the Allegheny (and Ohio) river was still called by the Dela-
wares the Alligewi Sipu, or river of the Alligewi. This would seem
to indicate it as the true river of the tradition. He speaks also of
remarkable earthworks seen by him in 1 7^'-» in the neighborhood of
Lake Erie, which were said by the Indians to have been built by the
extirpated tribe as defensive fortifications in the course < if this war.
Near two of these, in the vicinity of Sandusky, he was shown mounds
under which it was said some hundreds of the slain Talligewi were
buried. 1 As is usual in such traditions, the Alligewi were said to have
been of gianl stature, far exceeding their conquerors in size.
In the Walam Olum. which is. it is asserted, a metrical translation of
an ancient hieroglyphic bark record discovered in L820, the main tra-
dition is given in practically the same way. with an appendix which
follows the fortunes of the defeated tribe up to the beginning of the
historic period, thus completing the chain of evidence. (."■)
In the Walam Olum also we find the Delawares advancing from the
wesl or northwest until they come to "Fish river"'— the same which
Heckewelder make- the Mississippi (6). On the other side, we are
told. •■The Talligewi possessed the East." The Delaware chief
'•desired the eastern land," and some of his ] pie go on. hut are
killed by the Talligewi. The Delawares decide upon war and call in
the help of their northern friends, the "Talamatan," i. e., the Wyan-
dot and other allied Iroquoian tribes. A war ensues which continues
through the terms of four successive chiefs, when victory declares for the
invaders, and " all the Talega go south." The country is then divided,
the Talamatan taking- the northern portion, while the Delawares "-ta\
south of the lakes." The chronicle proceeds to tell how. after eleven
more chiefs have ruled, the Nanticokeand Shawano separate from the
■ Heckewelder, John, Indian Nations of Pennsylvania, pp. 17-49, oil. 1^76.
mooney] DELAWARE TRADITIONS THE NAME TALLIGEWI 1 ',»
parent tribe and remove to the south. Six other chiefs follow in suc-
cession until we come to the seventh, who "went to theTalega moun-
tains." By this time the Delawares have reached the ocean. Other
chiefs succeed, after whom "the Easterners and the Wolves" prob-
ably the Mahican or Wappinger and the Munsee — move off to the
northeast. At last, after six more chiefs, "the whites came on the
eastern sea." by which is probably meant the landing- of the Dutch on
.Manhattan in 1609 (7). We may consider this a tally date, approxi-
mating the beginning of the seventeenth century. Two more chiefs
rule, and of the second we are told that "He fought at the south: he
fought in the land of theTalega and Koweta," and again the fourth
chief after the coming of the whites "went to the Talega." We have*
thus a traditional record of a war of conquest carried on against the
Talligewi by four successive chiefs, and a succession of about twenty-
five chiefs between the final expulsion of that tribe and the appearance
of the whites, in which interval the Nantieoke, Shawano. .Mahican.
and Munsee branched oil' from the parent tribe of the Delawares.
Without venturing to entangle ourselves in the devious maze of Indian
chronology, it is sufficient to note that all this implies a very long period
of timt — so long, in fact, that during it several new tribes, each of
which in time developed a distinct dialect, branch off from the main
Lenape' stem. It is distinctly stated that all the Talega went south
after their final defeat: and from later references we rind that they took
refuge in the mountain country in the neighborhood of the Koweta
(the Creeks), and that Delaware war parties were still making raids
upon both these tribes long after the first appearance of the whites.
Although at first glance it might be thought that the name Tallige-wi
is but a corruption of Tsalagi, a closer study leads to the opinion that it
is a true Delaware word, in all probability connected with iruhJ, or
walok, signifying a cave or hole (Zeisberger), whence we rind in the
Walani Olum the word oligonunk rendered as "at the place of caves."
It would thus be an exact Delaware rendering of the same name,
"people of the cave country." by which, as we have seen, the Chero-
kee were commonly known among the tribes. Whatever may be the
origin of the name itself, there can be no reasonable doubt as to it~
application. "Name, location, and legends combine to identify the
Cherokees or Tsalaki with the Tallike: and this is as much evidence as
we can expect to produce in such researches." 1
The Wyandot confirm the Delaware story and fix the identification of
the expelled tribe. According to their tradition, as narrated in 1802,
the ancient fortifications in the Ohio valley had been erected in the
course of a long war between themselves and tin 'Cherokee, which
resulted finally in the defeat of the latter. '
The traditions of the Cherokee, so far as they have been preserved,
'Brinton. D.G., Walani Olum, p. 231; Phila., 1885.
2 Schoolcraft, H. E., Notes on the Iroquois, p. 162; Albany.1847.
20 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ahij.19
supplement and corroborate those of the northern tribes, thus bring-
ing the storj down to their final settlement upon the headwaters of
the Tennessee in the rich valleys of the southern Aileghenies. < >wing
to the Cherokee predilection for new gods, contrasting strongly with
tin conservatism of the Iroquois, their ritual forms and national epics
had fallen into decay even before tin' Revolution, a- we learn from
Adair. Some vestiges of their migration legend still existed in Hay-
wood's time, but it is now completely Forgotten both in the East ami
in the West.
According' to Haywood, who wrote in 1823 on information obtained
directly from leading members of the tribe long before the Removal,
the Cherokee formerly had alone- migration lee-end. which was already
lost, hut which, within the memory of the mother of one informant
say about L750 was still recited by chosen orators on the occasion of
the annual green-corn dance. This migration lee-end appears to have
resembled that of the Delawares and the Creeks in beginning with
genesis ami the period of animal monsters, and thence following the
shifting fortune of the chosen hand to the historic period. The tradi-
tion recited that they had originated in a land toward the rising sun.
where they had been placed by the command of ••the four councils
sent from above." In this pristine home were great snakes and water
monsters, for which reason it was supposed to have been near the sea
coast, although the assumption is not a necessary corollary, as these
are a feature of the mythology of all the eastern tribes. After this
genesis period there began a slow migration, during which "towns of
people in many nights* encampment removed," but no details are given.
From Heckewelder it appears that the expression, "a night's encamp-
ment." which occurs also in the Delaware migration legend, is an Indian
figure of speech for a halt of one year at a place. 1
In another place Haywood says, although apparently confusing the
chronologic order of events: ■"One tradition which they have amongst
them says they came from the west ami exterminated the former
inhabitants; and then says they came from the upper parts of the
Ohio, where they erected the mounds on Crave creek, and that they
removed thither from the country where Monticello (near Charlottes-
ville. Virginia) is situated." 8 The first reference is to the celebrated
mounds on the ( )hio near Moundsville, below Wheeling. West Virginia;
the other is doubtless to a noted burial mound described by Jefferson
in 17sl as then existing near his home, on the low groundsof Kivanua
river opposite the site of an ancient Indian town. He himself had
opened it and found it to contain perhaps a thousand disjointed
skeletons of hoth adults and children, the bones piled in successive
layers, those near the to]) being least decayed. They showed no signs
Heckewelder, Indian Nations, p. 17. ed. isti'..
2 Haywood, John, Natural and Aboriginal History of Tenn pp H5-226; Nashville, 1823.
mooney] EARLY DVVKLLING-PLACES 21
of violence, but were evidently the accumulation of long years from
the neighboring Indian town. The distinguished writer adds: "But
on whatever occasion they may have been made, they are of consider-
able notoriety among the Indians: for a party passing, about thirty
years ago [i. e., about L750], through the part of the country where
this barrow is. went through the woods directly to it without any
instructions or enquiry, and having staid about it some time, with
expressions which were construed to be those of sorrow, they returned
to the high road, which they had left about half a dozen miles to pay
this visit, and pursued their journey." 1 Although the tribe is not
named, the Indians were probably Cherokee, as no other southern
Indians were then accustomed to range in that section. As serving to
corroborate this opinion we have the statement of a prominent Cher-
okee chief, given to Schoolcraft in 1846, that acccording to their tradi-
tion his people had formerly lived at the Peaks of Otter, in Virginia,
a noted landmark of the Blue ridge, near the point where Staunton
river breaks through the mountains. 2
From a candid sifting of the evidence Haywood concludes that the
authors of the most ancient remains in Tennessee had spread over that
region from the south and southwest at a very early period, hut that
the later occupants, the Cherokee, had entered it from the north and
northeast in comparatively recent times, overrunning and exterminat-
ing the aborigines. He declares that the historical fact seems to be
established that the Cherokee entered the country from Virginia, mak-
ing temporary settlements upon New river and the upper Holston,
until, under the continued hostile pressure from the north, they were
again forced to remove farther to the south, fixing themselves upon the
Little Tennessee, in what afterward became known asthe middle towns.
By a leading mixed blood of the tribe he was informed that they had
made their first settlements within their modern home territory upon
Nolichucky river, and that, having lived the-re for a long period, they
could give no definite account of an earlier location. Echota, their
capital and peace town, "claimed to be the eldest brother in the nation,"
and the claim was generally acknowledged. In confirmation of the
statement as to an early occupancy of the upper Holston region, it may
he noted that " Watauga* )ld Fields," now Elizabeth town, were so called
from the fact that when the first white settlement within the present
state of Tennessee was begun there, so early as 1769, the bottom lands
were found to contain graves and other numerous ancient remains of a
former Indian town which tradition ascribed to the Cherokee, whose
nearest settlements were then many miles to the southward.
While the Cherokee claimed to have built the mounds on the upper
i Jefferson, Thomas, Notes on Virginia, pp.136-137; ed. Boston, 1802.
2 Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois, p. 163, i s i7.
•■> Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennesstv, w _'.;.;. j.:i,. ■_■.;■•. !-._■ .:
22 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.asjj.19
Ohio, the j yet, according to Haywood, expressly disclaimed the author-
ship of the very numerous mounds and petroglyphs in their later home
territory, asserting that these ancient works had exhibited the same
appearance when they themselves had first occupied the region. 1 This
accords with Bartram's statement that the Cherokee, although some-
times utilizing the mounds as sites for their own town houses, were a-
ignoranl as the whites of their origin or purpose, having only a gen
era! tradition that their forefathers had found them in much the same
condition on first coming into the country. 8
Although, as has been noted. Haywood expresses the opinion that
the invading Cherokee had overrun and exterminated the earlier
inhabitants, lie says in another place, on halfbreed authority, that
the newcomers found no Indians upon the waters of the Tennessee,
with the exception of some Creeks living upon that river, near the
mouth of the Hiwassee, the main body of that tribe being established
up md claiming all the streams to the southward. 3 There is
considerable evidence that the Creek- preceded the Cherokee, and
within the last century they still claimed the Tennessee, or at least
the Tennessee watershed, for their northern boundary.
There is a dim bul persistent tradition of a strange white race pre-
ceding the ( 'herokee. .-onie of the Molic- e\ ell going SO far as to locate
their former settlements and to identify them as the authors of the
ancient works found in the country. The earliest reference appeal's
to he that of Barton in 1797, on the statement of a gentleman whom
he quotes as a valuable authority upon the southern tribes. "The
Cheerake tell us, that when they first arrived in the country which
they inhabit, they found it possessed by certain •moon-eyed people,'
who could not see in the day-time. These wretches they expelled."
He seems to consider them an albino race.' Haywood, twenty-six
years later, says that the invading Cherokee found "white people"
near the head of the Little Tennessee, with forts extending thence down
the Tennessee as far as Chickamauga creek. He gives the location of
three of these forts. The Cherokee made war against them and
drove them to the mouth of Big Chickamauga creek, when' they
entered into a treaty and agreed to remove if permitted to depart in
peace. Permission being granted, they abandoned the country. Else-
where he speaks of this extirpated white race as having extended into
Llentucky and probably also into western Tennessee, according to the
concurrent traditions of different tribes. He desci'ibes their houses.
on wdiat authority is not stated, as having been small circular structures
i Haywood, Nat. and Aborig. Hist. Tennessee, pp. 226, 284, 1828.
SBartram.Wm., Travels, p. 365; reprint, London, L792.
••Hiiyw 1. op. Cit, pp. 23 i
'Barton, New Views,p. sliv, 17'JT.
mooney] THE DE SOTO EXPEDITION — 1540 '23
of upright logs, covered with earth which had been dug out from the
inside. 1
Harry Smith, a halfhreed born about 1815, father of the late chief
of the East Cherokee, informed the author that when a boy he had
been told by an old woman a tradition of a race of very small people,
perfectly white, who once came and lived for some time on the site of
the ancient mound on the northern side of Hiwassee, at the mouth of
Peachtree creek, a few miles above the present Murphy, North Caro-
lina. They afterward removed to the West. Colonel Thomas, the
white chief of the East Cherokee, horn about the beginning of the
century, had also heard a tradition of another race of people, who
lived on Hiwassee. opposite the present Murphy, and warned the
Cherokee that they must not attempt to cross over to the south side
of the river or the great leech in the water would swallow them. 2
They finally went west, •"long before the whites came" The two
stories are plainly the same, although told independently and many
miles apart.
The Period of Spanish Exploration — 1540-1
The definite history of the Cherokee begins with the year 1540, at
which date we find them already established, where they were always
afterward known, in the mountains of Carolina and Georgia. The
earliest Spanish adventurers failed to penetrate so far into the intf rior,
and the first entry into their country was made by De Soto, advancing
up the Savannah on his fruitless quest for gold, in May of that year.
While at Cofitachiqui. an important Indian town on the lower
Savannah governed by a " queen," the Spaniards had found hatchets
and other objects of copper, some of which was of finer color and
appeared to be mixed with gold, although they had no means of testing
it. 3 On inquiry they were told that the metal had come from an interior
mountain province called Chisca, hut the country was represented as
thinly peopled and the way as impassable for horses. Some time before,
while advancing through eastern Georgia, they had heard also of a
rich and plentiful province called Coca, toward the northwest, and by
the people of Cofitachiqui they were now told that Chiaha, the nearest
town of Coca province, was twelve days inland. As both men and
animals were already nearly exhausted from hunger and hard travel,
and the Indians either could not or would not furnish sufficient pro-
vision for their needs, De Soto determined not to attempt the passage
of the mountains then, but to push on at once to Coca, there to rest
and recuperate before undertaking further exploration. In the mean-
i Haywood, Nat. and Aborig. Hist. Tennessee, pp. 166, 234-235, 287-289, 1823.
See story, "The Great Leech of Tlanusi'yl, " p 328.
^Garcilasodela Vega, La Florida del Inea, pp. 129, 133-134; Madrid, 1723.
-1 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
time he hoped :i 1 — < > to obtain inure definite information concerning the
mines. As the chief puipose of the expedition was the discovery of
the mines, many of the officers regarded tin- change of plan a- a
mistake, and favored staying where they were until the ae\i crop
should !><■ ripened, then to go directly into the mountains, but as the
general was "a stern man and of few words," none ventured to oppose
his resolution. 1 The province of ( loca was the territory of the ( !reek
Indians, called Ani'-Kusa by the < Iherokee, from EZusa, or < !oosa, their
ancienl capital, while Chiaha was identical with Chehaw, 01 f the
principal Creek towns on Chattahoochee river. Cofitachiqui may
have Keen the capital of the LTchee Indians.
The outrageous conduct of the Spaniards had bo angered the Indian
queen thai she now refused i<> furnish guides and carriers, whereupon
l>e Sot<> made her a prisoner, with the design of compelling her to act
as guide herself, and at the same time to use her as a hostage to com-
mand the obedience pf her subjects, instead, however, of ( lucting
the Spaniards by the direct trail toward the west, she led them far
out Hi' their course until she finally managed to make her escape,
leaving them to find their way out of the mountain.-- as best they could.
Departing from Cofitachiqui, they turned tirst toward the north,
passing through several towns subject to the queen, to whom, although
a pris r. the Indians everywhere showed great respect and obe-
dience, furnishing whatever assistance the Spaniards compelled her to
demand for their own purposes. In a few day- they came to "a
province called Chalaque," the territory of the Cherokee Indians.
probably upon the waters of Keowee river, the eastern head-stream
of the Savannah. It is described as the poorest country for corn that
they had yet seen, the inhabitants subsisting on wild root- and
herbs and on game which they killed with bows and arrows. They
were naked, lean, and unwarlike. The country abounded in wild
turkeys ("gallinas"), which the people gave very freely to the
strangers, one town presenting them with seven hundred. A chief
also gave De Soto two deerskins a- a great present.' Garcilaso, writ-
ing on the authority of an old soldier nearly fifty years afterward,
says that the "Chalaques" deserted their towns on the approach of
the white men and lied to the mountains, leaving behind only old men
and women and some who were nearly blind. 3 Although it was too
early for the new crop, the poverty of the people may have been
more apparent than real, due to their unwillingness to give any part
of their stored-up provision to the unwelcome strangers. As the
Spaniards were greatly in need of. corn for themselves ami their
horses, they made no stay, hut hurried on. In a few days they arrived
Gentleman of Blvos, Publications of the Hakluyl Society, lx, pp. 52, 58, 64; London ;^">1
p mi.
•Garcilaso, La Florida del Enca, p. 136, ed
moosey] THE DE SOTO EXPEDITION 1540 25
at Guaquili, which is mentioned only by Ranjel, who does not specify
whether it was a town or a province— i. e., a tribal territory. It was
probably a small town. Here they were welcomed in a friendly man-
ner, the Indians giving them a little corn and many wild turkeys,
together with some dogs of a peculiar small species, which were bred
for eating purposes and did not bark. 1 They were also supplied with
men to help carry the baggage. The name Guaquili has a Cherokee
sound and may be connected with wa'guli', "whipj rwill," uicd'gili,
" f oam," or gill, "dog." 1/
Traveling still toward the north, they arrived a day or two later in
the province of Xuala, in which we recognize the territory of the
Suwali, Sara, or Cheraw Indians, in the piedmont region about the
head of Broad river in North Carolina. Garcilaso, who did not sec it.
represents it as a rich country, while the Elvas narrative and Biedma
agree that it was a rough, broken country, thinly inhabited and poor
in provision. According to Garcilaso, it was under the rule of the
queen of Cofitachiqui, although a distinct province in itself. 2 The
principal town was beside a small rapid stream, (lose under a moun-
tain. The chief received them in friendly fashion. giving them corn,
dogs of the small breed already mentioned, carrying baskets, and bur-
den bearers. The country roundabout showed greater indication- of
gold mines than any they had yet seen. 1
Here De Soto turned to the west, crossing a very high mountain
ranee, which appears to have been the Blue ridge, and descending on
'tin' other side to a stream flowing in the opposite direction, which
was probably one id' the upper tributaries of the French Broad. 3
Although it was late in May, they found it very cold in the moun-
tains.* After several days of such travel they arrived, about the end
of the month, at the town of Guasili, or Guaxule. The chief and
principal men came out some distance to welcome them, dressed in
tine robes of skins, with feather head-dresses, after the fashion of the
country. Before reaching this point the queen had managed to make
her escape, together with three slaves of the Spaniards, and the last
that was heard of her was that she was on her way back to her own
country with one of the runaways as her husband. What grieved
De Soto most in the matter was that she took with her a small box of
pearls, which he had intended to take.from her before releasing her.
but had left with her for the present in order •"not to discontent
hei- altogether."
Guaxule is described as a very large town surrounded by a number
of small mountain streams which united to form the large river down
which the Spaniard- proceeded after leaving the place. 6 Here, as
'Ranjel, in Oviedo, Historia Genera] y Natural de his Indias, i. p. 562; Madrid, 1851.
'Garcilaso, La Florida del Inca,p.l37, ITi':-;. 'Ranjel, "p. 'it., i. p. 562.
Sei note 8, De Soto's route ■ Elvas, Hakluyt Society, ix. p. 61, 1851.
o Garcilaso, op. cit., p. 139.
26 KYTH8 OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
elsewhere, the Indians received the white men with kindness and hos-
pitality -ii much so thai the nan E Guaxule became to the army a
synonym for good fortune. 1 Among other things they gave the Span-
iards 3 logs for f I, although, according to the Elvas narrative,
the Indian- themselves did qoI ea< them. 8 The principal officers of
the expedition were lodged in the "chief's house," bj which we are to
understand the townhouse, which was upon a high hill with a roadway
to the top. 3 From a close study of the narrative it appears that this
"hill" was ther than the greal Nacoochee mound, in White
county, Georgia, a few miles northwest of the present Clarkesville.'
It was within the Cherokee territory, and the town was probably a
settlement of thai tribe. From here De Soto senl runners ahead to
notify the chief of ( !hiaha of his approach, in order that sufficienl corn
might he ready mi his arrival.
Leaving < ruaxule, they proceeded down the river, w hich we identify
with the Chattahoochee, and in two days arrived at Canasoga, or Cana-
sagua, a frontier town of the Cherokee. As they neared the town
the\ were met i>\ the Indians, bearing baskets of "mulberries," 5 more
probably the delicious service-berry of the southern mountains, which
ripens in early summer, while the mulberry matures later.
From here they continued down the river, which grew constantly
larger, through an uninhabited country which formed the disputed
territory between the Cherokee and the Creeks. About five days after
leaving Canasagua they were met by messengers, who escorted them
to ( 'hiaha. the first town of the province of Coca. De Soto had crossed
the state of Georgia, leaving the Cherokee country behind him. ami
was now an lone- the Lower ( 'reeks, in the neighborhood of the present
Columbus, Georgia. 6 With his subsequent wanderings after crossing
the Chattahoochee into Alabama and beyond we need not concern
ourselves (8).
While resting at Chiaha De Soto met with a chief who confirmed
what the Spaniards had heard before concerning mines in theproi ince
of Chisca, saying that there was there "a melting of copper"and of
another metal of about the same color, but softer, ami therefore not -o
much used. 7 The province was northward from Chiaha. soinew here in
upper Georgia or the adjacent part of Alabama or Tennessee, through
all of which mountain region native copper is found. The other
mineral, which the Spaniards understood to he gold, may have been
iron pyrites, although there is some evidence that the Indians occa-
sionally found and shaped gold nuggets.'
i:.m |el, in i n Ledo, Hlstoria, [, p.563, 18 >1.
'Elvas, Biedma and Ranjel all make special reference to the dogs given them al this place; they
seem to have been of the same small breed ["perrillos' which Ranjel says the Indians used foi I.
sGarcilaso, La Florida del tnca, p. 139, 1728. 'See note 8, De Soto's
in-. Hakluyt Society, ix. p. 61,1861; and Ranjel.op cit.,p ••■
route. 'Elvas, op. cit., p.64.
mooxev] PARDO'S EXPEDITIONS — 1566-67 27
Accordingly two soldiers were sent on foot with Indian guides to
find Chisca ;m<l learn the truth of the stories. They rejoined the army
some time after the march had I n resumed, and reported according
to the Elvas chronicler, that their guides had taken them through a
country so poor in corn, so rough, and over so high mountains that it
would be impossible for the army to follow, wherefore, as the way
grew long and lingering, they had turned back after reaching a little
poor town where the}' saw nothing that was of any profit. They
brought back with them a dressed buffalo skin which the Indians there
had given them, the first ever obtained by white men. and described in
the quaint old chronicle as " an ox hide as thin as a calf's skin, and the
hair like a soft wool between the coarse and tine wool of sheep." 1
( rarcilaso's glowing narrative gives a somewhat different impression.
According to this author the scouts returned full of enthusiasm for
the fertility of the country, and reported that the mines were of a tine
species of copper, and had indications also of gold and silver, while
their progress from one town to another had been a continual series of
feastings and Indian hospitalities. 2 However that may have been,
De Solo made no further effort to reach the Cherokee mines, but con-
tinued his course westward through the Creek country, having spent
altogether a month in the mountain region.
There is no record of any second attempt to penetrate the Cherokee
country for twenty-six years (!l). In 1561 the Spaniards took formal
possession of the hay of Santa Elena, now Saint Helena, near Port
Royal, on the coast of South Carolina. The next year the French
made an unsuccessful attempt at settlement at the same place, and in
1566 Menendez made the Spanish occupancy sure by establishing there
a fort which he called San Felipe. 3 In November of that year Captain
.1 uan I'ai'do was sent with a party from the fort to explore the interior.
Accompanied by the chief of "Juada" (which from Vandera's narra-
tive we find should be "Joara," i.e.. the Sara Indians already men-
tioned in the De Soto chronicle), he proceeded as far as the territory of
that tribe, where he built a fort, hut on account of the snow in the
mountains did not think it advisable to go farther, and returned.
leaving a sergeant with thirty soldiers to garrison the post. Soon
after his return he received a letter from the sergeant stating that the
chief of Chisca— the rich mining country of which De Soto had heard —
was very hostile to the Spaniards, and that in a recent battle the latter
had killed a thousand of his Indians and burned fifty houses with
almost no damage to themselves. Either the sergeant or his chronicler
must have been an unconscionable liar, as it was asserted that all this
was done with only fifteen men. Immediately afterward, according
to the same story, the sergeant marched with twenty men about a day's
MYTH8 OF THE CHEROKEE [cth.aiih.19
distance in the mountains against another hostile chief, whom he found
in a Btrongly palisaded town, which, after a hard fight, he and his men
stormed and burned, killing fifteen hundred Indians without losing a
single man themselves. Under instructions Erom his superior officer,
the sergeant with his small party then proceeded to explore what lay
bej I. and. taking a road which the} were told led to the territory
of a ureal chief, after lour day- of hard marching they came to his
tow ii. called Chiaha (Chicha, by mistake in the manuscript transla-
tion), the same where De Soto had rested. It i- described at this time
as palisaded and strongly fortified, with a deep river on each side, and
defended by over three thousand fighting men. there being no women
or children among them. It is possible that in view of their former
experience with the Spaniards, (lie Indian- had sent their families
awa\ from the town, while at the same time they may have summoned
warrior- from the neighboring Creek town- in order to be prepared
for any emergency. However, as before, they received the white
men with the greatest kindness, and the Spaniard- continued for
twelve day- through the territories of the same tribe until thej arrived
at the principal town (Kusa?), where. by the imitation of the chief,
they huilt a small fort and awaited the coming of Pardo, who was
expected to follow with a larger force from Santa Elena, as he did in
the summer of 1567, being met on hi- arrival with every -how ,>i
hospitality from the Creek chief s. This second fort was said to he one
hundred and fortj leagues distant from that in the Sara country, which
latter was called one hundred and twenty Leagues fr Santa Ciena. 3
In the summer of 1567, according to previous agreement, Captain
Pardo left the fort at Santa Elena with a -mall detachment of troops,
and after a week's travel, sleeping each night at a different Indian
town, arrived at "Canos, which the Indian- call ( 'anosi. and by another
name, Cofetacque" (the Cofitachiqui of the De Soto chronicle),
which is described as situated in a favorable location for a large city.
fifty leagues from Santa Elena, to which tl asiest road was by a
river (the Savannah) which flowed by the town, or by another which
they had passed ten Leagues farther back. Proceeding, they passed
Jagaya, Gueza, and Arauchi, and arrived at Otariyatiqui, or Otari,
in which we- have perhaps the Cherokee d'tdri or d'tdli, "mountain".
It may have been a frontier Cherokee settlement, and. according to
the old chronicler, its chief and Language ruled much good country.
From here a trail went northward to Cuatari. Sauxpa. and L'si. i. e.,
the Wateree, Waxhaw (or Sissipahaw 'i. and l-'nerv or Catawba.
Leaving Otariyatiqui, they went on to Quinahaqui, and then, turn
ing to the Left, to [ssa, where they found mines of crystal (mica;).
Thev came nexl to Ae'uai'lliri (the Gruaquili of the De Solo chronicle).
and then to Joara, "near to the mountain, where Juan Pardo arrived
i Narrative of Panto's expedition by Martinez, about IS68, Uruuks manuscripts.
mooney] SPANISH MINING OPERATION'S 29
with his sergeant on his first trip." This, us has been noted, was the
Xuala of the De Soto chronicle, the territory of the Sara Indians, in
the foothills of the Blue ridge, southeast from the present Asheville,
North Carolina. Vandera makes it one hundred leagues from Santa
Elena, while Martinez, already quoted, makes the distance one hundred
and twenty leagues. The difference is not important, as both state-
ments were only estimates. From there they followed "along the
mountains" to Tocax (Toxaway?), Cauchi (Nacoochee?), and Tanas-
qui — apparently Cherokee towns, although the forms can not be iden-
tified — and after resting three days at the last-named place went on
"to Solameco, otherwise called Chiaha." where the sergeant met them.
The combined forces afterward went on, through Cpssa (Kusa), Tas-
quiqui (Taskigi). and other Creek towns, as far as Tascaluza, in the
Alabama country, and returned thence to Santa Elena, having appar-
ently met with a friendly reception everywhere along the route.
From Cofitachiqui to Tascaluza they went over about the same road
traversed by De Soto in 1540. "
We come now to a great gap of nearly a century. Shea has a notice
of a Spanish mission founded among the Cherokee in 1643 and still
flourishing when visited by an English traveler ten years later.' but as
his information is derived entirely from the fraudulent work of Davies,
and as no such mission is mentioned by Barcia in any of these years,
we may regard the story as spurious (10). The first mission work
in the tribe appears to have been that of Priber, almost a hundred
years later. Long before the end of the sixteenth century, however,
the existence of mines of gold and other metals in the Cherokee country
was a matter of common knowledge among the Spaniards at St. Augus-
tine and Santa Elena, and more than one expedition had been fitted out
to explore the interior. ' Numerous traces of ancient mining opera-
tions, with remains of old shafts and fortifications, evidently of Euro-
pean origin, show that these 'discoveries were followed up, although
the policy of Spain concealed the fact from the outside world. How
much permanent impression this early Spanish intercourse made
on the Cherokee il is impossible to estimate, but it must have been
considerable (11). ,
The Colonial and Revolutionary Period— i»>;>-L-1784
It was not until 1654 that the English first came into contact with
the Cherokee, called in the records of the period Rechahecrians, a cor-
ruption of Rickahockan, apparently the name by which they were
known to the Powhatan tribes. In that year the Virginia colony,
which had only recently concluded a long and exterminating war with
the Powhatan, was thrown into alarm by the news that a great body of
1 Vandera narrative, 1569, in French, B. F., Hist. Colls. of La., new series pp. I'sy-^L'; New York, 1875.
2 Shea, J. G., Catholic Missions, p. 72; New York, 1855.
3 See Brooks manuscripts, in the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
•"•n MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.akn.U
six or seven hundred Rechabecrian [ndians — by which is probably
meant thai number of warriors from the mountains had invaded the
lower country and established themselves at the falls of James river,
where now is the city of Richmond. The assembly at once passed
resolutions "thai these new come Indians be in no sort suffered to seal
themselves there, or any place near us. it having cost so much blood
to expel and extirpate those perfidious and treacherous Indians which
were there formerly." It was therefore ordered that a force of at least
100 white men be at once senl against them, to be joined by the war-
riors of all the neighboring subject tribes, according to treaty obliga-
tion. The Pamunkey chief , with a hundred of his men. responded to
the summons, and the combined force marched againsl the invaders.
The result was a bloody battle, with disastrous outcome to the Vir-
ginians, the Pamunkey chief with most ,,f hi- men being killed, while
the whites were forced to make such terms of peace with the Recha-
hecrians that the assembly cashiered the commander of the expedition
and compelled him to pav the whole cost of the treatj from his own
estate. 1 Owing to the imperfection of the Virginia records we have
no means of knowing the causes >d' tin' sudden invasion or how long
the invaders retained their position at the falls. In all probability it
was only the last of a long series of otherwise unrecorded irruptions
by the mountaineers on the more peaceful dwellers in the lowlands.
From a remark in Ledererit is probable that the Cherokee were assisted
also by some of the piedmont tribes hostile to the Powhatan. The
Peaks of Otter, near which the Cherokee claim to have once lived, as
has been already noted, are only about one hundred miles in a straight
line from Richmond, while the burial mound and town site near
Charlottesville, mentioned by Jefferson, are but half that distance.
In L655 a Virginia expedition sent out from the falls of James river
(Richmond) crossed over the mountains to the large streams flowing
into the Mississippi. No details are given and the route is uncertain,
hut whether or not they met Indians, they must have passed through
Cherokee territory. 2
In L670 the German traveler. John Lederer, went from the falls of
.lames river to the Catawba country in South Carolina, following for
most of the distance the path used by the Virginia traders, who already
had regular dealings with the southern tribes, including probably the
Cherokee, lie speaks in several places of the Riekahoekan, which
seems to he a re correct form than Rechahecrian. and his narrative
and the accompanying map put them in the mountains of North Caro-
lina, back of the Catawba and the Sara and southward from the head
of Roanoke river. They were apparently on hostile terms with the
tribes to the eastward, and while the traveler was stopping at an Indian
i Burk, John, History of Virginia, n. pp 104-107; Petersburg, 1805.
s Ramsey, J. G. M., Annals oi Tennessee, i». 87; Charleston, 1853 (quoting Man in, North euro] in a. r,
p. 115, lv..;,.
mooney] FIRST TREATY WITH SOUTH CAROLINA 1684 31
village on Dan river, about the present Clarksville, Virginia, a delega-
tion of Rickahockan, which had come on tribal business, was barba-
rously murdered at a dance prepared on the night of their arrival by
their treacherous hosts. On reaching the Catawba country he heard
of white men to the southward, and incidentally mentions that the
neighboring mountains were called the Suala mountains by the Span-
iards. 1 In the next year. 1671, a party from Virginia under Thomas
Batts explored the northern branch of Roanoke river and crossed
over the Blue ridge to the headwaters of New river, where they found
trace- of occupancy, but do Indians. By this time all the tribes of
this section, east of the mountains, were in possession of firearms. 2
The first permanent English settlement in South Carolina was estab-
lished in L670. In L690 .lames Moore, secretary of the colony, made
an exploring expedition into the mountains and reached a point at
which, according to his Indian guides, he was within twenty miles of
where the Spaniards were engaged in mining and smelting with bel-
lows and furnaces, but on account of some misunderstanding he
returned without visiting the place, although he procured specimens
of ores, which he sent to England for assay. 3 It may have been in the
neighborhood of the presenl Lincolnton, North Carolina, where a dam
of cut stone and other remains of former civilized occupancy have
recently been discovered (11). In this year. also. ( 'ornelius Dougherty',
an Irishman from Virginia, established himself as the first trader
among the Cherokee, with whom he spent the rest of his life.' Some
of his descendants still occupy honored positions in the tribe.
Among the manuscript archives of South Carolina there was said to
be, some fifty years ago, a treaty or agreement made with the govern-
ment of that colony by the Cherokee in L684, and signed with the
hieroglyphics of eight chiefs of the lower towns, viz. Corani. the
Raven (Ka'lanii): Sinnawa, the Hawk (Tla'nuwa); Nellawgitehi, Gor-
haleke. and Owasta, all of Toxawa; and Canacaught, the great Con-
juror, Gohoma, and Caunasaita, of Keowa. If still in existence, this
is probably the oldest Cherokee treaty on record.''
What seems to be the next mention of the Cherokee in the South
Carolina records occurs in L691, when we find an inquiry ordered in
regard to a report that some of the colonists "have, without any proc-
lamation of war. fallen upon and murdered" several of that tribe. 6
In 1693 some Cherokee chiefs went to Charleston with presents for
the governor and offers of friendship, to ask the protection of South
Carolina against their enemies, the Esaw (Catawba). Savanna (Shawano).
'Lederer, John, Discoveries, pp. 15, 26, 27, 29, 33, and map: reprint. Charleston, 1891; Mooney, Siouan
Tribes of the East (bulletin of Bureau of Ethnology i. pp. 53-54, 1894.
-Mooney. op.cit., pp. 34-35.
^Document of 1699, quoted in South Carolina Hist. Soc. Colls., i, p. 209: Charleston. 1857.
* Haywood, Nat. and Aborig. Hist. Tennessee, p. 233, 1823.
5 Noted in Cherokee Advocate, Tahlequah, Indian Territory. January SO, 1845.
6 Document of 1691. South Carolina Hist. Soc. Colls., I, p. 126.
1/
32 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE isw.U
and Congaree, all of thai colony, who bad made war upon them and
sold a number of their tribesmen into slavery. They were told that
their kinsmen could not n<>\\ be recovered, bul that the English desired
friendship with their tribe, and thai the Government would see that
there would be no future ground for such complaint.' The promise
was apparently not kept, for in L705 we find a bitter accusation brought
against Governor Moore, of South Carolina, that he had granted com-
missions to a number of persons "to set upon, assault, kill, destroy,
ami take captive as many Indians as they possible [sic] could.'* the
prisoners being sold into slavery for his and their private profit. By
this course, it was asserted, he had •"already almost utterly ruined the
trade for skins and furs, whereby we held our chief correspondence
with England, and turned it into a trade of Indians or slave making,
whereby the Indians to the south and west of us are alreadj involved
in blood and confusion.'" The arraignment concludes with a warning
that such conditions would in all probability draw down upon the colony
an Indian war with all its dreadful consequences. 2 In view of what
happened a few years later this reads like a prophecy.
Aliout tin' year L700the first guns were introduced among the Cher-
okee. th<' event being fixed traditionally as having occurred in the girl-
hood of an old woman of the tribe who died aliout L775. s In 17ns we
rind them described as a numerous people, living in the mountains
northwest from the Charleston settlements and havingsixty towns, hut
of small importance in the Indian trade, being "but ordinary hunters
and less warriors."*
In the war with the Tuscarora in 1711-171:'.. which resulted in the
expulsion of that tribe from North Carolina, more than a thousand
southern Indians reenforced the South Carolina volunteers, among
them being over two hundred Cherokee, hereditary enemies of the
Tuscarora. Although these Indian allies did their work well in the
actual encounters, their assistance was of doubtful advantage, as they
helped themselves freely to whatever they wanted alone' the way. so
that the settlers had reason to fear them almost as much as the hostile
Tuscarora. After torturing a large number of their prisoners in the
usual savage fashion, they returned with the remainder, whom they
afterward sold as slaves to South Carolina.'
Having wiped out old scores with the Tuscarora. the late allies of
the English proceeded to discuss their own grievances, which, as we
have seen, were sufficiently galling. The result was a combination
Hewat, s.iuili Carolina and Georgia, i. p. 127, 1778,
s Documents of 1705, in North Carolina Colonial Records, n, p. 904; Raleigh. 1886
Haywood, Nat. and Aborig. Tenn., p. 287,1823; with the usual idea thai Indians live to
old age, Haywood makes hei LlOyearsold at her death, patting back the introduction of Srearms
i . m hi Rivers, South Carolina p 288, 18 6,
Royci Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau "f Etl logj . p. L40, L888; Hewat,op. cit.,p.216
et passim.
> key] Mi mirk's EXPEDITION — 1715-16 33
against the whites, embracing all the tribes from Cape Fear to the
Chattahoochee, including the Cherokee, who thus for the first time
raised their hand against the English. The war opened with a terrible
massacre by the Yamassee in April, 1715, followed by assaults along
the whole frontier, until for a time it was seriously feared that the
colony of South Carolina would lie wiped out of existence. In a
contest between savagery and civilization, however, the final result is
inevitable. The settlers at last rallied their whole force under Gov-
ernor Craven and administered such a crushing blow to the Yamassee
that the remnant abandoned their country and took refuge with the
Spaniards in Florida or among the Lower Creeks. The English then
made short work with the smaller tribes along the coast, while those
in the interior were soon glad to sue for peace. 1
A number of Cherokee chiefs having come down to Charleston in
company with a trader to express their desire for peace, a force of
several hundred white troops and a number of negroes under Colonel
Maurice Moore went up the Savannah in the winter of 1715-16 and
made headquarters among the Lower Cherokee, where they were
met by the chiefs of the Lower and some of the western towns,
who reaffirmed their desire for a lasting peace with the English, but
refused to fight against the Yamassee, although willing to proceed
against some other tribes. They laid the blame for most of the
trouble upon the traders, who "had been very abuseful to them of late."
A detachment under Colonel George Chicken, sent to the Upper
Cherokee, penetrated to " Quoneashee " (Tlanusi'yi. on Hiwassee,
about the present. Murphy) where they found the chiefs more defiant,
resolved to continue the war against the ('reeks, with whom the Eng-
lish were then trying to make peace, and demanding large supplies of
guns and ammunition, saying that if they made a peace with the other
tribes they would have no means of getting slaves with which to buy
ammunition for themselves. At this time they claimed 2,370 war-
riors, of whom half were believed to have guns. As the strength of
the whole Nation was much greater, this estimate may have been for
the Upper and Middle Cherokee only. After "abundance of per-
suading" by tin- officers, they finally '"told us they would trust us
once again," and an arrangement was made to furnish them two hun-
dred guns with a supply of ammunition, together with fifty white
soldiers, to assist them against the tribes with which the English were,
still at war. In March, 171(5. this force was increased by one hundred
men. The detachment under Colonel Chicken returned by way of the
towns on the upper part of the Little Tennessee, thus penetrating the
heart of the Cherokee country. '
iHewat, South Carolina and Georgia, i, p. 216 et passim, 177s.
2 St*e Journal of Colonel 'irorv..' chicken. 1715-16, with notes, in Charleston Yearbook, pp 13-354
1S94.
19 ETH— 01 3
■U MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE ink.19
Steps were now taken to secure peace bj inaugurating a satisfactory
trade system, for which purpose a large quantity of suitable goods
was purchased at the public expense of South Carolina, and a corre-
spondingly large partj was equipped for the initial trip.' In L721,
in order still more to systematize Indian affairs, Governor Nicholson
of South Carolina invited the chiefs of the Cherokee t" a conference,
al which thirty-seven towns were represented. A treat} was made
|p\ which trading methods were regulated, a boundary line between
their territory and the English settlements was agreed upon, and an
agent was appointed to superintend their affairs-. At the governor's
suggestion, one chief, called WrosetasatoM i W was formally commis-
sioned as supreme head of the Nation, with authority to punish all
offenses, including murder, and to represent all Cherokee claim- to
the colonial government. Thus were the ( Jherokee reduced from their
former condition of a free people, ranging where their pleasure led. to
that of dependent vassals with hounds fixed by a colonial governor.
The negotiations were accompanied l>y a cession of land, the tirst in
the bistorj of the tribe. In little more than a century thereafter they
had signed away their whole original territory. 3
The document of 1 71 ti already quoted puts the strength of the ( Jhero-
kee at that time at 2,370 warriors, hut in this estimate the Lower
Cherokee seem not to have been included. In 171-"'. according to a
trade census compiled by Governor Johnson of South Carolina, the
tribe bad thirty towns, with 4,000 warriors and a total population of
ll.i'lo.' Another census in L721 gives them fifty-three towns with
3,510 warriors and a total of L0,379, 6 while the report of the hoard of
trade for the same year e-ives them 3,800 warriors, 6 equivalent, by the
same proportion, to nearly L2,000 total. Adair, a good authority on
such matters, estimates, about the year L735, when the country was
better known, that they had "sixty-four towns and villages, populous
and full of children," with more than 6,000 fighting men. equivalent
<>n the same basis of computation to between 1.6,000 and L7,000 souls.
From what we know of them in later times, it is probable that this
last estimate is very nearly correct.
I>\ this time the colonial government had become alarmed at the
advance of the French, who had made their first 'permanent establish-
ment in the Gulf states at Biloxi hay. Mississippi, in L699, and in
1711 had built Fort Toulouse, known to the English as "the fort at
■ rolina Assembly, in North Carolina Colonial R ds, n, pp. 225-227,
-' For liuiicr. Bee the glossan
South Carolina i i, pp. 297-298, 1778; Royce, Cherokee Nation, in F
.hi .ii Ethnology, p. 144 and map, 1888,
Ro E "p. Hi., p. 1 12.
Documenl of L724, in Fernow Berthold, Ohio Valley in Colonial liny-, pp. 278-275; Albao
• Report of Board ot Trade, 1721, in North Carolina Colonial Rei ! 1886,
• Adair, James, American Indians, p. JJ7. London, 177'.
cuming's treaty — L730 35
the Alabamas," on Coosa river, a few miles above the present Mont-
gomery, Alabama. From this central vantage point they had rapidly
extended their influence among all the neighboring tribes until in
1721 it was estimated that 3,400 warriors who had formerly traded
with Carolina had been ••entirely debauched to the French interest,"
while 2,000 more were wavering, and only the Cherokee could still be
considered friendly to the English. 1 From this time until the final
withdrawal of the French in IT*'.:; the explanation of our Indian wars
is to be found in the struggle between the two nations for territorial
and commercial supremacy, the Indian being simply the cat's-paw of
one o]- the other. For reasons of their own. the Chickasaw, whose
territory lay within the recognized limits of Louisiana, soon became the
uncompromising enemies of the French, and as their position enabled
them in a measure to control the approach from the Mississippi, the
Carolina government saw to it that they were kept well supplied with
guns and ammunition. British traders were in all their towns, and
on one occasion a French force, advancing against a Chickasaw
palisaded village, found it garrisoned by Englishmen flying the British
flag. 2 The Cherokee, although nominally allies of the English, were
strongly disposed to favor the French, and it required every effort of
the Carolina government to hold them to their allegiance.
In 1730, to further lix the Cherokee in the English interest, Sir
Alexander Cuming was dispatched on a secret mission to that tribe,
which was again smarting under grievances and almost ready to join
witli the Creeks in an alliance with the French. Proceeding to the
ancient town of Nequassee (Nikwasi', at the present Franklin, North
Carolina), lie so impressed the chiefs by his bold bearing that they
conceded without question all his demands, submitting themselves
and their people for the second time to the English dominion and
designating Moytoy, 3 of Tellico, to act as their "emperor" and to
represent the Nation in all transactions with the whites. Seven chiefs
were selected to visit England, where, in the palace at Whitehall,
they solemnly renewed the treaty, acknowledging the sovereignty of
England and binding themselves to have no trade or alliance with any
other nation, not to allow any other white people to settle among
thein. and to deliver up any fugitive slaves who might seek refuge
with them. To confirm their words they delivered a "crown", five
eagle-tails, and four scalps, which they had brought with them. In
return they received the usual glittering promises of love and per-
petual friendship, together with a substantial quantity of guns, ammu-
nition, and red paint. The treaty being concluded in September,
''Board of Trade report, 1721. North Carolina Colonial Records, n, p. 422, 1886.
spiekett.H. A., History of Alabama, pp. 234, 280, 288; reprint, Sheffield, 1896.
3 For notice, see the glossary.
36 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ann.19
they took ship for Carolina, where they arrived, as we are told by
(he governor, "in good health and mightily well satisfied with His
Majestj '- bounty to them." '
In the next year some action was taken to use the Cherokee and
Catawba to subdue the refractory remnant of the Tuscarora in North
Carolina, but when it was found that this was liable t<> bring down the
wrath of the Iroquois upon the Carolina settlements, more peaceable
methods were used instead. '
In L738 or 17:;'.' the smallpox, brought to Carolina by slave ships,
broke out among the ( Iherokee with such terrible effect that, according
to Adair, nearly half the tribe was swept away within a year. The
awful mortality was due largely to the fact that as it was a new and
strange disease to the Indian- they had no proper remedies against it.
and therefore resorted to the universal Indian panacea for "strong"
sickness of almost any kind. viz. cold plunge baths in the running
stream, the worst treatment that could possibly !»• devised. A> the
pestilence spread unchecked from town to town, despair fell upon the
nation. The priests, believing the visitation a penalty for violation of
the ancient ordinances, threw away their sacred paraphernalia as things
which had lost their protecting power. Hundreds of the warriors
committed suicide on beholding their frightful disfigurement. "So
shot themselves, others cut their throats, some stabbed themselves
with knives and others with sharp-pointed canes: many threw them-
sel\ es with sullen madness into the tire and there slowly expired, a- ii
they hail been utterly divested of the native power of feeling pain." 3
Another authority estimates their loss at a thousand warriors, partly
from smallpox and partly from rum brought in by the traders. 1
A 1 >■ nit the year L 740 a trading path for horsemen was marked out
by the Cherokee from the new settlement of Augusta, in Georgia, to
their towns on the headwaters of Savannah river and thence on to the
west. This road, which went up the south side of the river, soon
became much frequented.* Previous to this time most of the trading
goods had been transported on the backs of Indians. In the same
year a party of Cherokee under the war chief Ka'lanu. •"The Raven,"
took part in Oglethorpe's expedition against the Spaniards of Saint
Augustine.
In L736 Christian Priber, said to be a Jesuit acting in the French
interest, had come among the ( iherokee, and. by the facility with which
he learned the language and adapted himself to the native dress and
'Hewat, S Ii Carolina and Georgia, n,pp.S-ll, L779; treat; documei ' 1730, North Carolina
Colonial Ri — Is, ru, pp. 128 L33 1886; lenkinson, Collection of Treaties, n, pp. 315-318; Drake, S.G..
Early History of Georgia: Cuming's Embassy; Boston, 1872; letter of Governor Johnson, Dei
1780. noted In South Carolina Hist Soc. Colls., i p. 246, 1857.
a of 1781 and 1732, North Carolina Col I Records, III pp.153
\<i. ur American Indians pp. 232 234, 1775.
• Meadows (?), State of the Province ol Georgia, p . 1742, in Force Tracts, I 1831
I C Historj "i L-i.i i pp ! - B i L883,
kooney] PKIBER'S WORK 1736-41 87
mode of life, had quickly acquired a Leading influence among them.
He drew up for their adoption a scheme of government modeled after
the European plan, with the capital at Great Tellico, in Tennessee,
the principal medicine man as emperor, and himself as the emperor's
secretary. Dnder this title he corresponded with the South Carolina
government until it began to be feared that he would ultimately win
over the whole tribe to the French side. A commissi r was sent to
arrest him, but the Cherokee refused to give him up. and the deputy
was obliged to return under safe-conduct of an escort furnished by
Priber. Five years after the inauguration of his work, however, he
was seized by some English traders while on his way to Fort Toulouse,
and brought as a prisoner to Frederica, in Georgia, where he soon
afterward died while under confinement. Although his enemies had
represented him as a monster, inciting the Indians to the grosses!
immoralities, he proved to be a gentleman of polished address, exten-
sive learning, and rare courage, as was shown later on the occasion of
an explosion in the barracks magazine. Besides Greek, Latin. French,
German, Spanish, and fluent English, he spoke also the Cherokee,
and among his papers which were seized was found a manuscript
dictionary of the language, which he had prepared for publication -
the first, and even yet, perhaps, the most important study of the lan-
guage ever made. Says Adair: "As he was learned and possessed
of a very sagacious penetrating judgment, and had every qualification
that was requisite for his bold and difficult enterprise, it was not to be
doubted that, as he wrote a Cheerake dictionary, designed to be
published at Paris, he likewise set down a great deal that would have
been very acceptable to the curious and serviceable to the representa-
tives of South Carolina and Georgia, which may be readily found in
Frederica if the manuscripts have had the good fortune to escape the
despoiling hands of military power." He claimed to be a Jesuit, acting
under. orders of his superior, to introduce habits of steady industry,
civilized arts, and a regular form of government among the southern
tribes, with a view to the ultimate founding of an independent Indian
state. From all that can be gathered of him. even though it comes
from hi- enemies, there can be little doubt that he was a worthy
member of that illustrious order whose name has been a >\ nonym for
scholarship, devotion, and courage from the days of Jogues and Mar-
quette down to De Smet ami Mengarini. 1
I'p to this time no civilizing or mission work had been undertaken
by either of the Carolina governments among any of the tribes within
their borders. As one writer of the period quaintly puts it. "The
gospel spirit is not yet so gloriously arisen as to seek them more than
theirs." while another in stronger terms affirms. "To the shame of
can Indians, pp. 240-243, 1775; Stevens, W;B., History of Georgia, r, pp. 104-107; I'hiln.,
MYTHS 01 THE I HEROKEE inn.19
the Christian name, no pains have ever been taken to convert them to
Christianity; on the contrary, their morals are perverted and cor
rupted da the sad example they daily have of its depraved professors
residing in their towns."' Readers of Lawson and other narratives
of the period will feel the force of the rebuke.
Throughout the eighteenth century the Cherokee were engaged in
chronic warfare with their Indian neighbors. As these quarrels con-
cerned thr whites but little, however UK mieiiti hi- they may have been
to the principals, we have but few details. The war with the Tusca-
rora continued until the outbreak of the latter tribe against Carolina
in 171 1 gave opportunity to the Cherokee to cooperate in striking the
blow which drove the Tuscarora from their ancient homes to seek
refuge in the north. The Cherokee then turned their attention to the
Shawano on the ( 'uniberland. and with the aid of the ( 'hiekasaw finally
expelled theiu from that region about the year L715. Inroads upon
the Catawba were probably kept up until the latter had become so far
reduced by war and disease as to be mere dependent pensioners upon
the whites. The former friendship with the Chickasaw was at last
broken through the overbearing conduct of the Cherokee, and a war
followed of which we find incidental notice in L757, 8 and which termi-
nated in a decisive victory for the Chickasaw about L768. The bitter
war with the Iroquois of the far north continued, in spite of all the
efforts of the colonial governments, until a formal treaty of peace was
brought about by the efforts of Sir William Johnson (12) in the same
year.
The hereditary war with the Creeks for possession id' upper Georgia
continued, with brief intervals of peace, or even alliance, until the
United States finally interfered as mediator between the rival claimants.
In L718 we find notice of a large Cherokee war party moving against
the Creek tow n of i loweta, on the lower ( lhattahoocbee, but dispersing
on learning of the presence there of some French and Spanish officers,
a- well a- some English traders, all bent on arranging an alliance with
the Creeks. The Creeks themselves had declared their willingness to
be :it peace with the English, while still determined to keep the bloody
hatchet uplifted against the Cherokee. 3 The most important incident
of the Struggle between the two tribes was probably the battle of
Tali'wa about the year 1755. '
By this time the weaker coast tribes had become practically extinct.
and the more powerful tribes of the interior were beginning to take
the alarm, as they saw the restless borderers pushing every \ ear farther
into the Indian country. As early as 174S Dr Thomas Walker, with a
company of hunters and woodsmen from Virginia, crossed the moun-
1 Anonymous writer in Carroll, Hist. Colls. of South Carolina, a, pp 97-98, 517,
Buckle, Journal, 1757, in Rivers, South Carolina, p.57, 1856.
i Barcia, A. G-, Ensayo Cbronologico para la Historia General rti In Florida pp. ...;.. ..i- Madrid,
1728.
' For more mi regard to these intertribal wars see the historical traditions
MOONEY] FRENCH AND INDIAN" W'aI! 1754-6] 39
tains to the southwest, discovering and naming the celebrated Cumber-
land gap and passing on to the headwaters of Cumberland river.
Two years later he made a second exploration and penetrated to Ken-
tucky river, but on account of the Indian troubles no permanent
settlement was then attempted." This invasion of their territory
awakened a natural resentment of the native owners, and we rind
proof also in the Virginia records that the irresponsible borderers
seldom let pass an opportunity to kill and plunder any stray Indian
found in their neighborhood.
In 1755 the Cherokee were officially reported to number 2,590 war-
riors, as against probably twice that number previous to the great
smallpox epidemic sixteen years before. Their neighbors and ancient
enemies, the Catawba, had dwindled to 240 men. 2
Although war was not formally declared by England until L756,
hostilities in tiie seven year's struggle between France and England,
commonly known in America as the " French and Indian war." began
in April, 1754. when the French seized a small postwhich the English
had begun at tile present site of Pittsburg, and which was afterward
finished by the French under the name of Fort Du Quesne. Strenuous
efforts were made by the English to secure the Cherokee to their
interest against the French and their Indian allies, and treaties were
negotiated by which they promised assistance. 3 As these treaties.
however, carried the usual cessions of territory, and stipulated for
the building of several forts in the heart of the Cherokee country, it
is to be feared that the Indians were not duly impressed by tin disin-
terested character of the proceeding. Their preference for the French
was but thinly veiled, and only immediate policy prevented them from
throwing their whole force into the scale on that side. The reasons
for this preference are given by Timberlake, the young Virginian
officer who visited the tribe on an embassy of conciliation a few years
later:
I found the nation much attached to the French, who have the prudence, by
familiar politeness — which costs hut little ami often does a great deal — ami conform-
ing themselves to their ways and temper, to conciliate the inclinations of almost all
the Indians they are acquainted with, while the pride of our officers often disgusts
them. Nay, they did net scruple to own to me that it was the trade alone that
induced them to make peace with us, ami net any preference to the French, whom
they loved a great deal better. . . . The English are now so nigh, and encroached
daily so far upon them, that they u^t only felt the had effects of it ill their hunting
grounds, which were spoiled, hut had all the reason in the world to apprehend being
swallowed up by so potent neighbors or driven from the country inhabited by their
fathers, in which they were horn ami brought up, in tine, their native soil, for which
all men have a particular tenderness and affection.
i Walker, Thomas, Journal of an Exploration, etc., pp. 8, 35-37; Boston, 1888; Monette
the Me-, i. p. 317; New York. 1848 erroneously makes the second date L758.
2 Letter of Governor Dobbs, 1755, in North Carolina Colonial Records, v, pp. 320,321, 1887.
'Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 50-52 L8S Royce i herokee Nation, in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. of Eth-
nology, ]'■ 145, i v ^s
40 MYTH- OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.akn.1S
He adds that only dire necessity had induced them to make peace
with the English in I 761.'
In accordance with the treaty stipulations Fori Prince George was
built in L756 adjoining the important Cherokee town of Keowee, on
the headwaters of the Savannah, and Fort Loudon near the junction
of Tellico river with the Little Tennessee, in the center of the
Cherokee towns beyond the mountains. 2 By special arrangement with
the influential chief, Ata-kullakulla (Ata'-uul'kaliV). Fort Dobbs was
also built in the same year about -Jo mile- west of the present Salis-
bury. North ( larolina. 4
The Cherokee had agreed to furnish four hundred warriors to
cooperate against the French in the north, but before Fort Loudon
had been completed it was very evident that they had repented of
their promise, as their great council at Echota ordered the work
stopped and the garrison on the wax to turn hack, plainly telling the
officer in charge that they did not want so many white people among
them. Ata-kullakulla, hitherto supposed to he one of the stanchest
friendsof the English, was now one of the most determined in the oppo-
sition. It was in evidence also that they were in constant communi-
cation with the French. By much tact and argument their objec-
tions were at last overcome for a time, and they very unwillingly set
about raising the promised force of warriors. Major Andrew Lewi-,
who superintended the building of the fort, became convinced that
the Cherokee were really friendly to the French, and that all their
professions of friendship and assistance were ■•only to put a gloss on
their knavery." The fort was finally completed, and. on his suggestion,
wag garrisoned with a strong force of two hundred men under Captain
Demere\ 5 'There was strong ground for believing that some depreda-
tions committed about this time on the heads of Catawba and Broad
rivers, in North ( 'arolina. were the joint work id' ( 'herokee and northern
Indians." Notwithstanding all this, a considerable body of Cherokee
joined the British forces on the Virginia frontier.
Fort I >u Quesne was taken by the American provincials under Wash-
ington, November 25, 17-Vs. Quebec was taken September L3, 1759,
and by the final treaty of peace in I 7b:! the war ended with the transfer
of Canada and the Ohio valley to the crown of England. Louisiana
had already been ceded by France to Spain.
Although France was thus eliminated from the Indian problem, the
'Timberlake, Henry, Memeirs, pp. 7:;. 74; London, 1765
Ramsi i nm - p ■• 1853 Royce, Cherokee Nation, in Fifth Ann. Rept. Bur. of Ethnology,
p. 145, 1888.
i ,,, notice - i \iv sul"WUn', in the jlossarj
1 1: se] op ell . p 50.
Letters ol Majoi Indrev Lewis and Governor Dinwiddle, 17:«;. in North Carolina Colonial Records
v, pp i85 612-614 685,687,1887: Ramsey, op. clt., pp. 61, 52.
s Letter of Governor Dobbs, 1756, in North Carolina Colonial Rei Is, V, p. 604, 1887
: Dinw iddle letter, I7~>7. ibid., p
J key] LEWIS' EXPEDITION — 175(5 41
Indians themselves were not ready to accept the settlement. In the
north the confederated tribes under Pontiac continued to war on their
own account until 17<'>5. In the South the very Cherokee who had
acted a^ allies of the British against Fort DuQuesne, and had volun-
tarily offered to guard the frontier south of the Potomac, returned
to rouse their tribe to resistance.
The immediate exciting cause of the trouble was an unfortunate expe-
dition undertaken against the hostile Shawano in February, L756, by
Major Andrew Lewi-- (the same who had built Fort Loudon) withsome
two hundred Virginia troops assisted by about one hundred Cherokee.
After -i\ weeks of fruitless tramping through tin' woods, with the
ground covered with snow and the streams s,, swollen by rains that
they lost their provisions and ammunition in crossing, they were obliged
to return to the settlements in a starving condition, having killed their
horses on the way. The Indian contingent had from the first been
disgusted at the contempt and neglect experienced from those whom
they had conn 1 to assist. The Tuscarora and others had already gone
home, and the Cherokee now started to return on foot to their own
country. Finding some horses running loose on the range, they
appropriated them, on the theory that as they had lost their own
animals, to say nothing of having risked their lives, in the service
of the colonists, it was only a fair exchange. The frontiersmen
took another view of the question however, attacked the returning
Cherokee, and killed a number of them, variously stated at from
twelve to forty, including several of their prominent men. Accord-
ing to Adair they also scalped and mutilated the bodies in the savage
fashion to which they had become accustomed in the border wars, and
bi'ought the scalps into the settlements, where they were represented
as those of French Indians and sold at the regular price then estab-
lished by law. The young warriors at once prepared to take revenge,
but were restrained by the chief s until satisfaction could be demanded
in the ordinary way. according to the treaties arranged with the colonial
governments. Application was made in turn to Virginia, North
Carolina, and South Carolina, but without success. While the women
were still wailing night and morning for their slain kindred, and the
Creeks were taunting the warriors for their cowardice in thus quietly
submitting to the injury, some lawless officers of Fort Prince George
committed an unpardonable outrage at the neighboring Indian town
{_^^while most of the men were away hunting. 1 The warriors could no
longer be restrained. Soon there was news of attacks upon the back
settlements of Carolina, while on the other side of the mountains two
soldiers of the Fort Loudon garrison were killed. War seemed at
hand.
1 Adair. American Indians, 245-246, 177a; North Carol inn Colonial Records, v, p. xlviii, 1887; I lew at,
quoted in Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 54, 1853
42 MYTHS OB llli l HEROKEE
At ihi- juncture, in November, 1758, a party of influential chiefs,
having first ordered back a war party ju-t aboul in set mil from the
western towns against the Carolina settlements, came down toChai - les-
ton and succeeded in arranging the difficulty upon a friendly basis.
The assembly had officially declared peace with (lie < !herokee, \\ hen, in
M;i\ of 1759, Governor Lyttleton unexpectedly came forward with a
demand for the surrender I'm- execution of every Indian who had killed
a white man in tin' recent skirmishes, among these being t } » « - chiefs of
Citieo and Tellico. At the same time the commanderal Fori Loudon,
forgetful of the fact that In' had but a -mall garrison in the midst of
several thousands of restless savages, made a demand for twentj four
other chiefs whom he suspected of unfriendly action. Tocompel their
surrender orders were given to stop all trading supplies intended for
i he upper ( Iherokee.
This roused tin' whole Nation, and a delegation representing everj
town came down to Charleston, protesting the de-ire of the Indian- lor
peace and friendship, but declaring their inability to surrender their own
chiefs. The governor replied by declaring war in November, 1759, at
once callingout troops and sending messengers to secure the aid of all
the surrounding tribes against the Cherokee, [n the meantime asecond
delegation of thirty -two of the most prominent men. led by the young
war chief Oconostota (Agan-st&ta), 1 arrived t<> make a further efforl
for peace, Imt the governor, refusing to listen to them, seized the
whole party and confined them as prisoners at Fort Prince George, in
a room large enough for only six soldiers, while at the same time he
set fourteen hundred troops in motion to invade the Cherokee country.
On further representation by Ata-kullakulla (Ata'-gul''kfilu'), the civil
chief of the Nation and well known as a friend of the English, the gov-
ernor released Oconostota and two others after compelling some half
do/en of the delegation to sign a paper by which they pretended to
agree lor their tribe to kill or seize any Frenchmen entering their
countrj . and consented to the imprisonment of the parly until all the
warriors demanded had been surrendered for execution <>r otherwise.
At this stage of affairs the smallpox broke out in the Cherokee towns.
rendering a further stay in their neighborhood unsafe, and thinking
the whole matter now settled on his own basis, Lyttleton returned
to ( 'harleston.
The event soon proved how little he knew of Indian temper, < Ocono-
stota at once laid siege to Fort 1'rince George, completely cutting off
communication at a time when, as it was now winter, no help could
well be expected from below. In February, L 760, after having kept
the fort thus closely invested for some weeks, he sent word one day
by an Indian woman that he \\ ished to speak to the commander, Lieut-
enant Coytmore. As the lieutenant stepped out from the stockade
1 Fur notices Bee I he fi :
i Montgomery's expedition — 1760 43
to see what was wanted, Oconostota, standing on the opposite side of
the river, swung a bridle above his head as a signal to his warriors
concealed in the bushes, and the officer was at once shot down. The
soldiers immediately broke into the room where the hostages were
confined, every cue being a chief of prominence in the tribe, and
butchered them to the last man.
It was now war to the end. Led by Oconostota, the Cherokee
descended upon the frontier settlements of ( iarolina, while the warriors
across the mountains laid close siege to Fort London. In June, L760,
a strong force of over L,600 men. under Colonel Montgomery, started
to reduce the Cherokee towns and relieve the beleaguered garrison.
Crossing the Indian frontier. Montgomery quickly drove the enemy
from about Fort Prince George and then, rapidly advancing, surprised
Little Keow'ee, killing every man of the defenders, and destroyed in
succession every one of the Lower Cherokee towns, burning them to
the ground, cutting down the cornfields and orchards, killing and
taking more than a hundred of their men. and driving the whole popu-
lation into the mountains before him. His own loss was very slight.
He then sent messengers to the .Middle and Upper towns, summoning
them to surrender on penalty of the like fate, but, receiving no reply,
he led his men across the divide to the waters of the Little Tennessee
and continued down that stream without opposition until he came in
the vicinity of Ephoee (Itse'yi), a few mile- above the sacred town of
Nikwasi', the present Franklin. North Carolina. Here the Cherokee
had collected their full force to resist his progress, and the result was
a desperate engagement on dune 27, LTtio. by which Montgomery was
compelled to retire to Fort Prince George, after losing nearly one
hundred men in killed and wounded. The Indian loss is unknown.
His retreat sealed the fate of Fort Loudon. The garrison, though
hard pressed and reduced to the necessity of eating horses and dogs,
had been enabled to hold out through the kindness of the Indian
women, many of whom, having found sweethearts among the soldiers,
brought them supplies of f 1 daily. When threatened by the chiefs
the women boldly replied that the soldiers were their husbands and it
was their duty to help them, and that if any harm came to themselves
for their devotion their English relatives would avenge them. 1 The
end was only delayed, however, and on August 8, 1760, the garrison
of about two hundred men, under Captain Demere, surrendered to
Oconostota on promise that they should be allowed to retire unmo-
lested with their arms and sufficient ammunition for the march, on
condition of delivering up all the remaining warlike stores.
The troops marched out and proceeded far enough to camp for the
night, while the Indians swarmed into the fort to see what plunder
they might hud. "By accident a discovery was made of ten bags of
J Tunberlake, Memoirs, p. 65, 1765.
44 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.ih
powder and a large quantity of ball thai had been secretly buried in
the fort, to prevent their falling into the enemy's hands" (Hewat).
It i- said also that cannon, small arm-, and ammunition had been
thrown into the river with the same intention (Haywood). Em-aged
al this breach of the capitulation the Cherokee attacked the soldiers
next morning at daylight, killing Deniere" and twenty-nine others at
the first fire. The rest were taken ami held as pris »rs until ran-
somed some time after. The second officer, Captain Stuart (13), for
whom the Indian- had a high regard, was claimed by Ata-kullakulla.
who soon after took him into the woods, ostensibly on a hunting
excursion, and conducted him for nine days through the wilderness
until he delivered him safely into the hands of friends in Virginia.
The chief's kindness was well rewarded, and it was largely through
his influence that peace was finally brought about.
It was now too late, and the settlements were too much exhausted,
for another expedition, so the fall and winter were employed by the
English in preparations for an active campaign the next year in force
to crush out all resistance. In June 1761, Colonel Grant with an
army of 2,600 men. including a number of Chickasaw and almost
every remaining warrior of the Catawba, 1 set out from Fort Prince
George. Refusings request from Ata-kullakulla foi a friendly accom-
modation, he crossed Rabun yap and advanced rapidly down the
Little Tennessee alone- the same trail taken by the expedition of the
previous year. On June 10, when within two miles of Montgomery's
battlefield, he encountered the Cherokee, whom he defeated, although
with considerable loss to himself, after a stubborn engagement lasting
several hours. Having repulsed the Indians, he proceeded on his
way, sending out detachments to the outlying settlements, until in
the course of a month he had destroyed every one of the Middle
town-. I.', in all. with all their granaries and cornfields, driven the
inhabitants into the mountain-, and "pushed the frontier seventy
miles farther to the west."
y 1 ^ The Cherokee were now reduced to the greatest extremity. With
some of their best towns in ashes, their fields and orchards wasted for
two successive years, their ammunition nearly exhausted, many of
their bravest warriors dead, their people fugitives in the mountains,
hiding in caves and living like beasts upon roots or killing their
horses for food, with the terrible scourge of smallpox adding to the
mi-eric- of starvation, and withal torn by factional differences which
had existed from the very beginning of the war ii wa- impossible
for even brave men to resist longer. In September Ata-kullakulla,
who had all alone- done everything in his power to stay the disaffec-
tion, came down to Charleston, a treaty of peace was made, and the
i Catawba reference from Milligan, 171;:;, in Carroll, South Carolina Historical Collections, 11, p.
519
M....NKV] AUGUSTA TREATY ADVANCE OF SETTLEMENTS 45
war was ended. From an estimated population of at least 5,000 war-
riors some years before, the Cherokee had now been reduced to about
2,300 men. 1
In the meantime a force of Virginians under Colonel Stephen had
advanced as far as the Great island of the Holston -now Klingsport,
Tennessee — where they were met by a large delegation of Cherokee,
who sued for peace, which was concluded with them by Colonel
Stephen on November 19, 1761, independently of what was being done
in South Carolina. On the urgent request of the chief that an officer
might visit their people for a short time to cement the new friendship,
Lieutenant Henry Timberlake, a young Virginian who had already dis-
tinguished himself in active service, volunteered to return with them to
their towns, where he spent several months. He afterward conducted
a delegation of chiefs to England, where, as they had come without
authority from the Government, they met such an unpleasant recep-
tion that they returned disgusted. '
On the conclusion of peace between England and France in 1 T • *► : ; . by
which the whole western territory was ceded to England, a great
council was held at Augusta, which was attended by the chiefs and
principal men of all the southern Indians, at which Captain John
Stuart, superintendent for the southern tribes, together with the colo-
nial governors of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and ( reor
gia, explained fully to the Indians the new condition of affairs, and a
treaty of mutual peace and friendship was concluded on November 10
of that year. :
Under several leaders, as Walker, W alien, Smith, and Boon, the tide
of emigration now surged across the mountains in spite of every efforl
to restrain it. 4 and the period between the end of the Cherokee war
and the opening of the Revolution is principally notable for a number
of treaty cessions by the Indians, each in fruitless endeavor to tix a
permanent barrier between themselves and the advancing wave of
white settlement. Chief among these was the famous Henderson pur-
\/ chase in 1775, which included the whole tract between the Kentucky
and Cumberland rivers, embracing the greater part of the present
state of Kentucky. By these treaties the Cherokee were shorn of
practically all their ancient territorial claims north of the present
Tennessee line and east of the Blue ridge and the Savannah, including
much of their best hunting range; their home settlements were, how-
ever, left still in their possession. '
1 Figures from Adair, American Indians, p. 227, 177"'. When not otherwise
the Cherokee war • <( 1760-61 is compiled chiefly from the contemporarj dispatches in the Gi rifleman's
Magazine, supplemented from Hewat's Historical account of South Carolina and Georgia, 177s: with
additional details from Adair. American Indians; Ramsej , Tennessei ; Royce, Cherokee Nation; North
Carolina Colonial Records, v, documents and introduction; etc.
-Timberlake. Memoirs, p. 9 et passim, 1765.
'Stevens, Georgia, II, pp. 26-29, 1859, 'Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 65-70, 1853
sRoycc Cherokei Nation, in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. of Ethnology, pp. 146-149, 1888.
..
46 MYTHS OK THE CHEROKEI [bih.ann.19
As ■ consequence of the late Cherokee war, a royal proclamation
had been issued in L 763, with a view of checking future encroachments
l>\ the whites, which prohibited any private land purchases from the
Indians, or an} granting of warrants for lands wesl of the sources
of the streams flowing into the Atlantic. 1 In L 768, on the appeal of
the Indians themselves, the British superintendent for the southern
tribes, Captain John Stuart, had negotiated a treaty at Hani Labor
in South Carolina by which Kanawha and New rivers, along their
whole course downward from the North Carolina line, were Sxed as
the boundary between the Cherokee and the whites in that direction.
In two years, however, so many borderers had crossed into the Indian
country, where thej were evidently determined to remain, thai it was
found necessary to substitute another treaty, by which the line was
made to nm due south from t he mouth of the Kanawha to the Hols ton,
thus cutting off from the Cherokee almost the whole of their hunting
grounds in Virginia and West Virginia. Two years later, in I77l'.
the Virginians demanded a further cession, by which everything east
of Kentucky river was surrendered; and finally, on March 17. 177.">.
the great Henderson purchase was consummated, including the whole
tract between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers. By this last i/
cession the Cherokee were at last cut otl' from Ohio river and all their
rich Kentucky hunting grounds. 8
While these transactions were called treaties, they were really
forced upon the native proprietors, who resisted each in turn and
finally signed only under protest and on most solemn assurances that
no further demands would be made. Even before the purchases were
made, intruders in large numbers had settled upon each of the tracts
in question, and they refused to withdraw across the boundaries now
established, but remained on one pretext or another to await a new
adjustment. This was particularly the case on Watauga and upper
Holston rivers in northeastern Tennessee, where the settlers, finding
themselves still within the Indian boundary and being resolved to
remain, effected a temporary lease from (he Cherokee in 177l'. As
was expected and intended, the lease beca a permanent occupancy,
the nucleus settlement of the future State of Tenne — er.
Just before the outbreak of the Revolution, the botanist. William
Hart ram. made an extended tour of the Cherokee country, anil has left
US a pleasant account of the hospitable character ami friendly dispo-
sition of the Indians at that time. He gives alist of forty-three towns
then inhabited by the tribe.'
The opening of the great Revolutionary struggle in 1 T T * "> found the
Indian tribes almost to a man ranged on the British side against the
R03 •' < Iherokee Nation, op. cit., p. 1 19; Eta
2 Ramsey, op. cit., pp. 98 122; Royce, op. cit. pp. 146-149.
> Ramsey, op. cit., pp. 109 122; Royce,. op, cit. p. U6et pa
< Bartram, Travels, pp 166 i" ! 1792
hoo.\-f.i- BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION 4i
Americans. There was good reason for this. Since the fall of
the French power the British government had stood to them as the
sole representative of authority, and the guardian and protector of
their rights against constant encroachments by the American borderers.
Licensed British traders were resident in every tribe and many had
intermarried and raised families among them, while the bonier man
looked upon the Indian only as a cumberer of the earth. The British
superintendents, Sir William Johnson in the north and Captain John
Stuart in the south, they knew as generous friends, while hardly a
warrior of them all was without some old cause of resentment against
their backwoods neighbors. They felt that the only barrier between
themselves and national extinction was in the strength of the British
government, and when the final severence came they threw their
whole power into the British scale. They were encouraged in this
resolution by presents of clothing and other Moods, with promises of
plunder from the settlement- and hopes of recovering a portion of their
lost territories. The British government having determined, as early
as June, 1775. to call in the Indians against the Americans, supplies
of hatchets, guns, and ammunition were issued to the warriors of all
the tribes from the lakes to the gulf, and bounties were offered for
American scalps brought in to the commanding officer at Detroit or
Oswego. 1 Even the Six Nations, w ho had agreed in solemn treaty to
remain neutral, were won over by these persuasions. In August, 177">.
an Indian "talk" was intercepted in which the Cherokee assured Cam-
eron, the resident agent, that their warriors, enlisted in the service of
the king, were ready at a signal to tall upon the back settlements of
Carolina and Georgia. 2 Circular letters were sent out to all those
persons in the back country supposed to he of royalist sympathies,
directing them to repair to Cameron's headquarters in the Cherokee
country to join the Indians in the invasion of the settlements."
In .Tune. 1776, a British fleet under command of Sir Peter Parker,
with a large aavaland military force, attacked Charleston, South Caro-
lina, both by land and sea. and simultaneously a body of ( 'herokee, led
by Tories in Indian disguise, came down from the mountains and ravaged
the exposed frontier of South Carolina, killing and burning as they
went. After a gallant defense by the garrison at Charleston the British
were repulsed, whereupon their Indian and Tory allies withdrew.'
About the same time the warning came from Nancy Ward 114). a
noted friendly Indian woman of "teat authority in the ( 'herokee Nation.
that seven hundred Cherokee warriors were advancing in two divisions
against the Watauga and Holston settlements, with the design of
'Kin: [>p ii. L.'iu s.v.; Mi >notte, Valley of the Mississippi, I, pp. 400, 401, 431, 432, and
II, pp. 33. 34, 1846; Roosevelt. Winning of the West, I. pp. 276-281, and II, pp. 1-6, 1889.
op. 'it., p. 143.
'Quoted from Stedman, in Ramsey, op. cit., \>. 162.
* Ramsey,op. cit., p. 162.
48 .MYTHS 01 THE CHEROKEE
IKTH.
destroying everything as far up as New river. The Holston men
from b'oth sides of the Virginia line hastily collected under Captain
Thompson and marched againsl the Indians, whom they met and
defeated with signal loss after a hard-foughl battle near the Long
island in the rlolston (Kingsport, Tennessee), on Augusl 20. The
nexl da\ the second division of the Cherokee attacked the fori at
Watauga, garrisoned by only forty men under ( Japtain .lame- Robert-
son (15), but was repulsed without loss to the defenders, the Indians
withdrawing on news of the result ai the Long island. A Mrs. Bean
and a boy named Moore were captured on this occasion and carried to
one of the Cherokee towns in the neighborhood of Tellico, where the
boj was burned, hut tin' woman, after she had been condemned to
death and everything was in readiness for the tragedy, was rescued by
the interpositi f Nancy Ward. Two other Cherokee detachments
moved against the upper settlements at the same time. One of these.
finding all the inhabitants securely shut up in forts, returned without
doing much damage. The other ravaged the country on Clinch river
almost to its head, and killed a man and wounded other- at Black's
station, now Abingdon, Virginia. 1
At the same time that one pari of the Cherokee were raiding the
Tennessee settlements others came down upon the frontiers of Caro-
lina and Georgia. On the upper Catawba they killed many people, hut
the whites took refuge in the stockade stations, where they defended
themselves until General Rutherford (hi) came to their relief. In
Georgia an attempt had been made by a small party of Americans to
seize Cameron, who lived in one of the Cherokee towns with his Indian
\\ ife. hut. as was to have been expected, the Indians interfered, killing
several of the party and capturing others, who were afterward tortured
lo death. The Cherokee of the Upper and Mid. lie town-, with some
Creeks and Tories of the vicinity, led by Cameron himself, at once
began ravaging the South Carolina border, burning houses, driving off
cattle, and killing men, women, and children without distinction, until
the whole country was in a wild panic, tin 1 people abandoning their
farms to seek safety in the garrisoned forts. On one occasion an
at t aids by two hundred of the enemy, half of them being Tories, stripped
and painted like Indians, was repulsed by the timely arrival of a body
of Americans, who succeeded in capturing thirteen of the Tories. The
invasion extended into Georgia, where also property was destroyed
and the inhabitants were driven from their homes.'
Realizing their common danger, the border states determined to
strike such a concerted blow at the Cherokee as should render them
passive while the struggle with England continued. In accord with
this plan of cooperation tin; frontier forces were quickly mobilized and
Ramse) Tenne ■. pp L50-159 1858
Eto aevelt, Winning of the West, I, pp. 293-297, 1889.
i nkv] RUTHERFORD AND WILLIAMSON EXPEDITIONS 177«> 49
in the summer of 1776 four expeditions were equipped from Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to enter the Cherokee
territory simultaneously from as many different directions.
In August of that year the army of North Carolina, 2,400 strong,
under General Griffith Rutherford, crossed the Blue ridge at Swan-
nanoa gap, and following the main trail almost along the present line
of the railroad, struck the first Indian town, Stika'yi, or Stecoee, on
the Tuekasegee, near the present Whittier. The inhabitants having
fled, the soldiers burned the town, together with an unfinished town-
house ready for the roof, cut down the standing corn, killed one or
twostraggling Indians, and then proceeded on their mission of destruc-
tion. Every town upon Oconaluftee, Tuekasegee, and the upper
part of Little Tennessee, and on Hiwassee to below the junction of
Valley river — thirty-six towns in all — was destroyed in turn, the corn
cut down or trampled under the hoofs of the stock driven into the
fields for that purpose, and the stock itself killed or carried off. Before
such an overwhelming force, supplemented as it was by three others
simultaneously advancing from other directions, the Cherokee made
but poor resistance, and tied with their women and children into the
fastnesses of the Great Smoky mountains, leaving their desolated fields
and smoking towns behind them. As was usual in Indian wars, the
actual number killed or taken was small, but the destruction of pro-
perty was beyond calculation. At Sugartown (Kulsetsi'yi, east of the
present Franklin) one detachment, sent to destroy it. was surprised,
and escaped only through the aid of another force sent to its rescue.
Rutherford himself, while proceeding to the destruction of the Hiwas-
see towns, encountered the Indians drawn up to oppose his progress in
the Wayagap of the Nantahala mountains, and one of the hardest tights
of the campaign resulted, the soldiers losing over forty killed and
wounded, although the Cherokee were finally repulsed (17). One of
the Indians killed on this occasion was afterward discovered to be a
woman, painted and armed like a warrior. 1
On September M the South Carolina army, 1,860 strong, under
Colonel Andrew Williamson, and including a number of Catawba
Indians, effected a junction with Rutherford's forces on Hiwassee
river, near the present Murphy. North Carolina. It had been expected
that Williamson would join the northern army at Cowee, on the Little
Tennessee, when they would proceed together against the western
towns, but he had been delayed, and the work of destruction in that
direction was already completed, so that after a short rest each army
returned home along the route by which it had come.
The South Carolina men had centered by different detachments in
'See no. 110, "Incidents of Personal Heroism." For Rutherford's expedition, see Moore, Rutherford's
Expedition, in North Carolina University Magazine, February, 1888; Swain, Sketch of the Indian War
in 1776, ibid., May, 1852, reprinted in Historical Magazine, November, 1867; Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 164,
1853; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, I, pp. 294-302, 1889, etc.
19 ETH 01 4
50 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.anu.m
the lower Cherokee town- about the head of Savannah river, burning
one town after another, cutting down the peach trees and ripened
corn, and having an occasional brush with the Cherokee, who hung con-
stantly 141011 their flanks. At the town of Seneca, near which they
encountered ( 'aineron witti his Indian- and Tories, they had destroyed
six thousand bushels of corn, besides other food stores, after burning all
the houses, the Indians having retreated after a -tout resistance. The
most serious encounter had taken place at Tomassee, where several
whites and sixteen ( 'hcrokec wen- killed, the latter being all scalped
afterward. Having completed the ruin of the Lower town-. Wil-
liamson had cros-ed over Rabun gap and descended into the valley of the
Little Tennessee to cooperate with Rutherford in the destruction of the
Middleand Valley town-. As the army advanced every house in every
settlement met was burned ninety houses in one settlement alone and
detachments were sent into the fields to destroy the corn, of which the
smallest town was estimated to have two hundred acre-, besides pota-
toes, beans, and orchards of peach trees. The store- of dressed deer-
skins and other valuables were carried off. Everything was swept clean,
and the Indians who were not killed or taken were driven, homeless
refugees, into the dark recesses of Nantahala or painfully made their
way across to the Overhill towns in Tennessee, which were already
menaced by another invasion from the north.'
In -Inly, while Williamson was engaged on the the upper Savannah,
a force of two hundred Georgians, under Colonel Samuel .lack, had
marched in the same direction ami succeeded in burning two towns on
the heads of ( 'hat t ahoochee and Tugaloo rivers, destroying the corn
ami driving oil' the cattle, without the loss of a man. the Cherokee
having apparently fallen hack to concentrate for resistance in the
mountains. 2
The Virginia army, about two thousand strong, under Colonel
William Christian (18), rendezvoused in August at the Long island
of the Ilolston. the regular gathering place on the Tennessee side of
the mountains. Among them were several hundred men from North
Carolina, with all who could he spared from the garrisons on the
Tennessee side. Paying hut little attention to small bodies of Lndi
ans, who tried to divert attention ortodelay progress by flankattacks,
they advanced steadily, hut cautiously, along the great Indian war-
path (19) toward the crossing id' the French Broad, where a strong
force of ( 'hcrokec was reported to he in waiting to dispute their pas-
sage, .lust before reaching the river the Indians sent a Tory trader
1 For Williamson's expedition, ••<■<■ Ross Journal, with Rockwell's notes, in Historical Magazine,
October, 1876; Swain.Sketch of the rndian War in n~u, in North Carolina University Magazine for
May, 1852, reprinted in Historical Magazine, November, 1867; Jones, Georgia, 11, p. 246et passim,
1883 1: unsey, Tennessee, 168 164, 1858; 1: evelt, Winning of the West, 1, pp. 296 308, 1889.
; .i 9, op. cit., p. 246; Ramsey, op. cit., p. 163; Roosevelt, op. cit., p. 295.
mooney] christian's expedition — 1776 51
with a flag of truce to discuss tonus. Knowing that his own strength
was overwhelming. Christian allowed the envoy to go through the
whole camp and then sent him back with the message that there could
be no terms until the Cherokee towns had been destroyed. Arriving
at the ford, he kindled fires and made all preparations as if intending
to camp there for several days. As soon as night fell, however, he
secretly drew off half his force and crossed the river lower down, to
come upon the Indians in their rear. This was a work of great diffi-
culty; as the water was so deep that it came up almost to the shoulders
of the men, while the current was so rapid that they were obliged to
support each other four abreast to prevent being swept off their feet.
However, they kept their guns and powder dry. On reaching the
other side they were surprised to find no enemy. Disheartened at the
strength of the invasion, the Indians had fled without even a show of
resistance. It is probable that nearly all their men and resources had
been drawn off to oppose the Carolina forces on their eastern border.
and the few who remained felt themselves unequal to the contest.
Advancing without opposition, Christian reached the towns on
Little Tennessee early in November, and, finding them deserted, pro-
ceeded to destroy them, one after another, with their outlying fields.
The few lingering warriors discovered were all killed. In the mean-
time messages had been sent out to the farther towns, in response to
which several of their head men came into Christian's camp to treat
for peace. On their agreement to surrender all the prisoners and
captured stock in their hands and to cede to the whites all the disputed
territory occupied by the Tennessee settlements, as soon as represent-
atives of the whole tribe could be assembled in the spring, Christian
consented to suspend hostilities and retire without doing further
injury. An exception was made against Tuskegee and another town,
which had been concerned in the burning of the boy taken from
Watauga, already noted, and these two were reduced to ashes. The
sacred "peace town,'" Echota (20), had not been molested. Most of
the troops were disbanded on their return to the Long island, but a
part remained and built Fort Patrick Henry, where they went into
winter quarters. 1
From incidental notices in narratives written by some of the partici-
pants, we obtain interesting side-lights on the merciless character of this
old border warfare. In addition to the ordinary destruction of war — the
burning of towns, the wasting of fruitful fields, and the killing of the
defenders — we find that every Indian warrior killed was scalped, when
opportunity permitted; women, as well as men, were shot down and
afterward ''helped to their end"; and prisoners taken were put up at
auction as slaves when not killed on the spot. Near Tomassee a small
1 For the Virginia-Tennessee expedition see Roosevelt, Winning of the West, i, pp. 308-305, 1889;
Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 165-170,1853.
;>'- MVTHs OF THE CHEBOKJEE [cth.anh.19
party of Indian-, was surrounded and entirely cut <>tl'. "Sixteen were
found dead in the valley when the battle ended. These our men
scalped." In a personal encounter "a stout Indian engaged a sturdy
young white man. who was a good bruiser and expert at gouging.
After breaking their guns on each other they laid hold of one another,
when the cracker had bis thumbs instantly in the fellow's eyes, who
roared and cried i ccmaly'' -enough, in English. •Damn you,' says
the white man. 'you can never have enough while you are alive.* He
then threw him down, set his foot upon his head, and scalped him
alive; then took up one of the broken guns and knocked out hi.- brains.
It would have been fun if he had let the latter action alone and sent
him home without his nightcap, to tell his countrymen how he had
been treated." Later on some of the same detachment (Williamson's)
seeing a woman ahead, fired on her and brought her down with two
serious wounds, hut yet able to speak. After getting what informa-
tion she could give them, through a half-breed interpreter, ■"the
informer being unable to travel, 8 ! of our men favored her so far
that they killed her there, to put her out of pain." A few days later
••a party of Colonel Thomas's regiment, being on a hunt of plunder.
or Mime such thing, found an Indian squaw and took herprisoner, -he
being lame, was unable to go with her friends. She was so sullen
that -he would, as an old saying is. neither lead nor drive, and by their
account she died in their hand-; hut I suppose they helped her to her
end." At this place — on the Hiwassee -they found a large town.
having ••upwards of ninety houses, and large quantities of corn." and
"we encamped among- the corn, where we had a great plenty of corn.
peas, beans, potatoes, and hogs." and on the next day "we were
ordered to assemble in companies to spread through the town to
destroy, cut down, and burn all the vegetables belonging to our
heathen enemies, which was no small undertaking, they being so
plentifully supplied." Continuing to another town, "we engaged in
our former labor, that is, cutting and destroying all things that might
be of advantage to our enemies. Finding here curious building-.
great apple trees, and white-man-like improvements, these we
destroyed." '
While crossing over the mountains Rutherford's men approached a
house belonging to a trader, when one of his negro slaves ran out and
'"was shot by the Reverend .lames Hall, the chaplain, as he ran. mis-
taking him for an Indian."' Soon after they captured two women
and a boy. It was proposed to auction them off at once to the highest
bidder, and when one of the officers protested that the matter should
be left to the disposition of Congress. •• the greater part swore bloodily
that if they were not sold for slaves upon the spot they would kill and
1 Ross Journal, in Historical Magazine, October, lsr.7.
"Swain, sketch ol the Indian War ..f 1776, in Historical Magazine, November, 1867.
mooney] TREATIES OF DE WITTS CORNERS AND LONG ISLAND 53"
scalp them immediately." The prisoners were accordinglj r sold for
about twelve hundred dollars. 1
At the Wolf Hills settlement, now Abingdon, Virginia, a party sent
out from the fort returned with the scalps of eleven warriors. Having
recovered the books which their minister had left behind in his cabin,
they held a service of prayer for their success, after which the fresh
scalps were hung upon a pole above the gate of the fort. The barba-
rous custom of scalping to which the border men had become habitu-
ated in the earlier wars was practiced upon every occasion when
opportunity presented, at least upon the bodies of warriors, and the
South Carolina legislature offered a bounty of seventy-five pounds for
every warrior's scalp, a higher reward, however, being offered for
prisoners.'- In spite of all the bitterness which the war aroused there
seems to be no record of any scalping of Tories or other whites by the
Americans (-1).
The effect upon the Cherokee of this irruption of more than six
thousand armed enemies into their territory was well nigh paralyzing.
More than fifty of their towns had been burned, their orchards cut
down, their lields wasted, their cattle and horses killed or driven off.
their stores of buckskin and other personal property plundered.
Hundreds of their people had been killed or had died of starvation
and exposure, others were prisoners in the hands of the Americans,
and some had been sold into slavery. Those who had escaped were
fugitives in the mountains, living upon acorns, chestnuts, and wild
game, or were refugees with the British.' 1 From the Virginia line to
the Chattahoochee the chain of destruction was complete. For the
present at least any further resistance was hopeless, and they were
compelled to sue for peace.
By a treaty concluded at De Witts Corners in South Carolina on May
•Jo. 1777. the first ever made with the new states, the Lower Cherokee
surrendered to the conqueror all of their remaining territory in South
Carolina, excepting a narrow strip along the western boundary. Just
two months later, on July 20, by treaty at the Long island, as had been
arranged by Christian in the preceding fall, the Middle and Upper
Cherokee ceded everything east of the Blue ridge, together with all
the disputed territory on the 'Watauga. Nolichucky, upper Holston,
and New rivers. By this second treaty also Captain James Robertson
was appointed agent for the Cherokee, to reside at Echota. to watch
their movements, recover any captured property, and prevent their
correspondence with persons unfriendly to the American cause. As
the Federal government was not yet in perfect operation these treaties
i Moore's narrative, in North Carolina University Magazine. February, 1888.
^Roosevelt, Winning of the West, i. pp. 285, 290, 303, 1889.
'About rive hundred sought refuge with Stuart, the British Indian superintendent in Florida,
where they were fed for some time at the expense of the British government (Jones, Georgia, II,
p. 246, 1S83).
54 MYTHS OF THE OHEEOKEE bth.akii.19
were negotiated by commissioners from the four states adjoining the
Cherokee country, the territory thus acquired being parceled oul to
Sou tli ( iarolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. 1
While tlif Cherokee Nation had thus been compelled to a treaty of
peace, a very considerable portion of the tribe was irreconcilably hos-
tile to the Americans and refused to be a party to the late cessions,
especially on the Tennessee side. Although Ata-kullakulla sen! word
that he was readj with five hundred young warriors to fighl for the
Americans against the English or Indian enemy whenever called upon,
Dragging-canoe (Tsiyu-gunsi'ni), who had led the opposition against
the Watauga settlements, declared that he would holdfast to Cameron's
talk and continue to make war upon those who had taken his hunting
grounds. Under his leadership some hundreds id' the most warlike
and implacable warriors of the tribe, with their families, drew out
from the Upper and Middle towns and moved far down upon Tennes-
see river, where thej established new settlements on Chickamauga
creek, in the neighborhood of the present Chattanooga. The locality
appears to have been already a rendezvous for a sort of Indian ban-
ditti, who sometimes plundered boats disabled in the rapids at this
point while descending the river. Under the name "Chickamaugas"
they >oon became noted for their uncompromising and never-ceasing
hostility. In ITs-J. in consequence of the destruction of their towns
liv Sevier and Campbell, they abandoned this location and moved
farther down the river, where they built what were afterwards known
as the ••five lower towns." viz. Running Water, Nickajack, Long
Island. Crow town, and Lookout Mountain town. These were all on
the extreme western Cherokee frontier, near where Tennessee river
crosses the state line, the first three being within the present limits' of
Tennessee, while Lookout Mountain town and Crow town were
respectively in the adjacent corners of Georgia and Alabama. Their
population was recruited from Creeks. Shawano, and white Tories, until
they were estimated at a thousand warriors. Here they remained,
a constant thorn in the side of Tennessee, until their towns were
destroyed in L794.'
The expatriated Lower Cherokee also removed to the farthest west-
tern border of their tribal territory, where they might hope to be
secure from encroachment for a time at least, and built new" towns for
themselves on the upper waters of the Coosa. Twenty years after-
i Royce, Cherol Nation, in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, i> 160 and map, 1888; Ramsey,
rennessee pp 172-1 ens, G gia, II, p. 144, 1859; Roosevelt, Winning of tin- West, i. i>.
806, 1889.
i Ramsey, "p. eit., pp. 171-177. 186-186, 610 el passim; Royce, op. ■■it., p, 160; Campbell letter, 17sj.
mill other documents in Virginia state Papers, in. pp. J7!. 571, 699, 1888, and tv. pp n\ 286, 1884;
Hi. unit letter, January 14, 179:;. American State Papers; Indian Iffairs, i. p. Bl, 1882. Campbell says
thej abandoned their first location on account oi the invasion from Tenne Governor Blount
says they left on account of witches.
mooney] DESTRUCTION OF CHICKAMAUGA TOWNS 1779 55
ward Hawkins found the population of Willstown, in extreme western
Georgia, entirely made up of refugees from the Savannah, and the
children so familiar from their parents with stories of Williamson's
invasion that they ran screaming from the face of a white man (i^l'). 1
In April. 1777. the legislature of North Carolina, of which Tennes-
see was still a part, authorized bounties of land in the new territory to
all able-bodied men who should volunteer against the remaining hostile
Cherokee. Under this act companies of rangers were kept along the
exposed border to cut off raiding parties of Indians and to protect the
steady advance of the pioneers, with the result that the Tennessee set-
tlements enjoyed a brief respite and were even able to send some assist-
ance to their brethren in Kentucky, who were sorely pressed by the
Shawano and other northern tribes. 2
The war between England ami the colonies still continued, however,
and the British government was unremitting in its effort to secure the
active assistance of the Indians. With the Creeks raiding the Georgia
ami South Carolina frontier, and with a British agent, Colonel Brown,
and a number of Tory refugees regularly domiciled at Chickamauga, 3
it was impossible for the Cherokee lone' to remain quiet. In the
spring of 177'.» the warning came from Robertson, stationed at Echota,
that three hundred warriors from Chickamauga had started against the
back settlements of North Carolina. Without a day's delay the states
of North Carolina (including Tennessee) and Virginia united to send a
strong force of volunteers against them under command of Colonels
Shelby and Montgomery. Descending the Holston in April in a fleet
of canoes built for tin 1 occasion, they took the Chickamauga towns so
completely by surprise that the few warriors remaining fled to the
mountains without attempting to give battle. Several were killed,
Chickamauga and the outlying villages were burned, twenty thousand
bushels of corn were destroyed and large numbers of horses and cattle
captured, together with a great quantity of goods sent by the British
Governor Hamilton at Detroit for distribution to the Indians. The
success of this expedition frustrated the execution of a project by
Hamilton for uniting all the northern and southern Indians, to lie
assisted by British regulars, in a concerted attack along the whole
American frontier. ( )n learning, through runnel's, of the blow that
had befallen them, the Chickamauga warriors gave up all idea of
invading the settlements, and returned to their wasted villages. 1 They,
as well as the Creeks, however, kept in constant communication with
1 Hawkins, manuscript journal, 1796, with Georgia Historical Socii ty.
2 Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 174-178, 1S53.
3 t'ampbell letter, 1782, Virginia State Papers, ill, p. 271, 1883.
< Ramsey, op. eit, pp. 186-188; Roosevelt. Winning of the West, II, pp. 236-238, 1889. Ramsey's state-
ments, chiefly on Haywood's authority, of the strength of the expedition, the number of warriors
killed, etc., are so evidently overdrawn that they are here omitted.
56 MYTHS ok THE CHEROKEE
the British commander in Savannah. In this year also a delegation of
Cherokee \ isited the Ohio towns to offer condolences on the death of
the noted I Delaware chief, White ej es. 1
In tlic early spring of L780 a large company of emigrants under
Colonel John Donelson descended the Holston and the Tennessee to
the Ohio, whence they ascended the Cumberland, effected a junction
with another party under Captain James Robertson, which hud just
arrived by a toilsome overland route, and made the ti i-t settlement on
the present site of Nashville. In passing the Chickamauga towns they
had run the gauntlet of the hostile Cherokee, who pursued them for a
considerable distance beyond the whirlpool known as the Suck, where
the river breaks through the mountain. The family of a man named
Stuart being infected with the smallpox, his boat dropped behind, and
all on board, twenty-eight in number, were killed or taken by the
Indians, their cries being distinctly heard by their friends ahead who
were unable to help them. Another boat having run upon the rocks,
the three women in it, one of whom had become a mother the night
before, threw the cargo into the river, and then, jumping into the
water, succeeded in pushing the boat into the current while the hus-
band of one of them kept the Indians at bay with his rifle. The infant
was killed in the confusion. Three cowards attempted to escape,
without thought of their companions. One was drowned in the river;
the other two were captured and carried to Chickamauga. where one
was burned and the other was ransomed by a trader. The rest went
on their way to found the capital of a new commonwealth. 2 As if in
retributive justice, the smallpox broke out in the Chickamauga band in
consequence of the capture of Stuart's family, causing the death of
a great number.'
The British having reconquered Georgia and South Carolina and
destroyed all resistance in the south, early in L780 Cornwallis, with his
subordinates, Ferguson and the merciless Tarleton, prepared to invade
North Carolina and sweep the country northward to Virginia. The
Creeks under McGillivray (S\). and a number of the Cherokee under
various local chiefs, together with the Tories, at once joined his
standard.
While the Tennessee backwoodsmen were gathered at a barbecue to
contest for a shooting prize, a paroled prisoner brought a demand
from Ferguson for their submission; with the threat, if they refused,
that he would cross the mountains, hang their leaders, kill every man
found in arms and burn every settlement. Up to this time the moun-
tain men had confined their effort to holding in check the Indian
enemy, but now, with the fate of the Revolution at stake, they felt
Bei kewelder, [ndian Nations, p. 327, reprint oi 1876.
*Donelson's Journal, etc., in Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 197-208, L853; Roosevelt, Winning of tin- West,
ii, pp. ::ji ::i". 1889.
•Ibid., ii. p ;:.;7.
mooney] THE BORDER FIGHTERS 57
that the time for wider action had come. They resolved not to await
the attack, hut to anticipate it. Without order or authority from
Congress, without tents, commissary, or supplies, the Indian fighters
of Virginia. North Carolina, and Tennessee quickly assembled at the
Svcamore shoals of the Watauga to the number of about one thousand
men under Campbell of Virginia, Sexier (24) and Shelby of Tennessee,
and McDowell of North Carolina. Crossing the mountains, they met
Ferguson at Kings mountain in South Carolina on October 7. 1780,
and gained the decisive victory that turned the tide of the Revolution
in the South. 1
It is in place here to quote a description of these men in buckskin,
white by blood and tradition, but half Indian in habit and instinct,
who, in half a century of continuous conflict, drove back Creeks,
Cherokee, and Shawano, and with one hand on the plow and the other
on the rifle redeemed a wilderness and carried civilization and free
government to the banks of the Mississippi.
"They were led by leaders they trusted, they were wonted to Indian
warfare, they were skilled as horsemen and marksmen, they knew how
to face every kind of danger, hardship, and privation. Their fringed
and tasseled hunting shirts were girded by bead-worked belts, and the
trappings of their horses were stained red and yellow. On their heads
they wore caps of coon skin or mink skin, with the tails hanging
down, or else felt hats, in each of which was thrust a buck tail or a
sprig of evergreen. Every man carried a small-bore rifle, a toma-
hawk, and a scalping knife. A very few of the officers had swords,
and there was not a bayonet nor a tent in the army." 2
To strike the blow at Kings mountain the border men had been
forced to leave their own homes unprotected. Even before they could
cross the mountains on their return the news came that the Cherokee
were again out in force for the destruction of the upper settlements,
and their numerous small bauds were killing, burning, and plundering
in the usual Indian fashion. Without loss of time the Holston settle-
ments of Virginia and Tennessee at once raised seven hundred mounted
riflemen to march against the enemy, the command being assigned to
Colonel Arthur Campbell of Virginia and Colonel John Sexier of
Tennessee.
Sevier started first with nearly three hundred men, going south
along the great Indian war trail and driving small parties of the
Cherokee before him, until he crossed the French Broad and came
upon seventy of them on Boyds creek, not far from the present Sex in -
ville, on December 16, 1780. Ordering his men to spread out into a
half circle, he sent ahead some scouts, who, by an attack and feigned
retreat, managed to draw the Indians into the trap thus prepared,
1 Roosevelt, Winning of the West, II, pp. 241-294, 1SS9; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 208-249, 1853.
- Roosevelt, op. cit., p. 256.
58 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ajih.19
with the result that they lefl thirteen dead ;m<l all their plunder, while
not nnc of the whites was even wounded. 1
A few days later Sevier was joined by ( ampbell with 1 1 1 * - remainder
of tin' force. Advancing to the Little Tennessee with but slight
resistance, thej crossed three miles below Echota while the Indians
were watching for them at the f oi'd above. Then dividing into two
bodies, thej proceeded to destroy the town- along the river. The
chiefs sent peace talks through Nancy Ward, the Cherokee woman
who had so befriended the whites in 177H. but to these overtures
Campbell returned an evasive answer until he could first destroy
the town- on lower Hiwassee, whose warriors had been particularly
hostile. Continuing southward, the troops destroyed these town-.
Hiwassee and Chestuee, with all their stoic- of provisions, finishing
the work on the last day of the year. The Indians had lied before
them, keeping -pie- out to watch their movements. One of these,
while giving signals from a ridge by beating a drum, was -hot by the
white-. The soldiers lost only one man. who was buried in an Indian
cabin which was then burned down to conceal the trace of the inter-
ment. The return march was begun on New Year's day. Ten prin-
v cipal towns, including Echota, the capital, had been destroyed, besides
several smaller villages, containing in the aggregate over one thousand
house-, and not less than fifty thousand bushels of corn and large stores
of other provision. Everything not needed on the return march
was committed to the flames or otherwise wasted. Of all the towns
west of the mountains only Talassee, and one or two about Chicka-
mauga or on the headwaters of the Coosa, escaped. The whites had
lost only one man killed and two wounded. Before the return a
proclamation was sent to the Cherokee chief-, warning them to make
peace on penalty of a worse visitation."
Some Cherokee who met them at Echota. on the return march, to
talk of peace, brought in and surrendered several white prisoners. 1
One rea-on for the slight resistance made by the Indians was prob-
ably the fact that at the very time of the invasion many of their
warriors were away, raiding on the Upper Holston and in the neigh-
borhood of Cumberland gap.'
Although the Upper or Overhill Cherokee were thus humbled,
those of the middle towns, on the head waters id' Little Tennessee, still
continued to send out parties against the back settlements. Sevier
■ Roosevelt Winning of the West, II, pp. 298-800, 1889; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 261 264 1858 There
is great discrepancy in the various accounts of this fight, from the attempts of interested historians
to magnify the size of the victory. One writei gives the Indians 1,000 warriors. Bere, us elsewhere,
Roosevelt is .-i more reliable guide, his state nts being usually from official documents.
s Roosevelt, op. '-it., pp. 300-304; K sej op cit, pp. 265 268; Campbell, report, January 16, 1781, in
Virginia State Papers, i, p. 486. Hayw l and others after him make (lie expedition go as fur as
Chickamauga and C a river, but Campbell's report express!} denies this.
Ramsey op cit . p 266
I Roose> 'It "p. '-it.. |i.302.
mooney] TREATY OF LONG ISLAND 1781 59
determined to make a sudden stroke upon them, and early in March
of the same year. 1781, with 150 picked horsemen, he started to cross
the Great Smoky mountains over trails never before attempted by
white men. and so rough in places that it was hardly possible to lead
horses. Falling unexpectedly upon Tuckasegee, near the present
Webster, North Carolina, he took the town completely by surprise,
killing several warriors and rapturing- a number of women and chil-
dren. Two other principal towns and three smaller .settlements were
taken in the same way. with a quantity of provision and about 200
horses, the Indians being entirely off their guard and unprepared to
make any effective resistance. Having spread destruction through
the middle towns, with the loss to himself of only one man killed and
another wounded, he was off again as suddenly as he had come, moving
so rapidly that he was well on his homeward way before the Cherokee
could gather for pursuit. 1 At the same time a smaller Tennessee expe-
dition w r ent out to disperse the Indians who had been making head-
quarters in the mountains about Cumberland gap and harassing travelers
along the road to Kentucky.- Numerous indications of Indians were
found, hut none were met, although the country was scoured for a con-
siderable distance. 3 In summer the Cherokee made another incursion,
this time upon the new settlements on the French Broad, near the present
Newport, Tennessee. With a hundred horsemen Sexier fell suddenly
upon their camp on Indian creek, killed a dozen warriors, ami scat-
tered the rest. 1 By these successive blows the Cherokee were so worn
out and dispirited that they were forced to sue for peace, and in mid-
summer of 1781 a treaty of peace -doubtful though it might be — was
negotiated at the Long island of the Holston. 5 Tin' respite came just
in time to allow the Tennesseeaus to send a detachment against Corn-
wallis.
Although there was truce in Tennessee, there was none in the South.
In November of this year the Cherokee made a sudden inroad upon
the Georgia settlements, destroying everything in their way. In
retaliation a force under General Pickens marched into their country,
destroying their towns as far as Valley river. Finding further prog-
ress blocked by heavy snows and learning through a prisoner that the
Indians, who had retired before him, were collecting to oppose him in
the mountains, he withdrew, as he says, "through absolute necessity,"
having accomplished very little of the result expected. Shortly after-
ward the Cherokee, together with some ( 'reeks, again invaded ( leorgia,
'Campbell, letter, March 28, 1781, in Virgin in slate Papers, t, p. 602, 1875; Martin, letter, Marcb.31,1781,
ibid., p. 613; Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 268, 1853; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, II, pp. 305-307, 1889.
^Campbell, letter, March 28, 1781, in Virginia State Papers, I, p. 602, 1S75.
3 Ramsey, op. eit.. p. 269.
4 Ibid.; Roosevelt, op. eit.. p. 307.
5 Ibid.; Ramsey, op. eit., pp. 267. 268. The latter authority seems i ate it 1782, which is evidently
a mistake.
60 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.amh.19
but were met on Ocoi river and driven back by a detachment of
American troops. 1
The Overhill Cherokee, on lower Little Tennessee, seem to have been
trying in g I faith to bold t<> the peace established at the Long
island. Early in 17^1 the government land office had been closed to
further entries, no! to be opened again until peace had been declared
with England, bul the borderers paid little attention t<> the law in
such matters, and the rage t'<>r speculation in Tennessee land- gre^
stronger daily. 8 In the fall of L 782 the chief, Old Tassel of Echota,
<in behalf of all the friendly child's and towns, sent a pathetic talk
tn the governors of Virginia and North Carolina, complaining that
in spite of all their efforts to remain quiet the settlers were constantly
encroaching upon them, and had built houses within a day's walk of
the Cherokee towns. They asked that all those whites who had settled
beyond the boundary last established should be removed.' A- was
to have been expected, tin- was never dour.
The Chickamauga band, however, and those farther to the south.
were still Unit on war. being actively encouraged in that disposition
by the British agents and refugee loyalists living among them. They
continued to raid both north and south, and in September, 1782,
Sevier, with 200 mounted men, again made a descent upon their towns.
destroying several of their settlements about Chickamauga creek, and
penetrating as far as the important town of Ustana'li, on the head-
waters of Coosa river, near the present Calhoun. Georgia. This also
he destroyed. Every warrior found was killed, together with a white
man found in one of the towns, whose papers showed that he had been
active in inciting the Indians to war. On the return the expedition
halted at Echota. where new assurances were received from the
friendly element.* In the meantime a Georgia expedition of over -loo
men. under General Pickens, had been ravaging the Cherokee towns
in the same quarter, with such effect that the Cherokee were forced to
purchase peace by a further surrender of territory on the head of
Broad river in Georgia. 5 This cession was concluded at a treaty of
peace held with the Georgia commissioners at Augusta in the next
year, and was confirmed later by the Creeks, who claimed an interest
in the same lands, hut was never accepted by either as the voluntary
, act of their tribe as a whole."
By the preliminary treaty of Paris. November 30, 17nl'. the long
Revolutionary Si ruggle for independence was brought toa (dose, and the
Cherokee, a- well as the other tribes, seeing the hopelessness of con-
>Steven9, G £ia, H, pp. 282-285, 1859; Jones, Georgia, n. p. 603, 1888.
= Roosevelt, Winning of the West, ti, \>. 811, 1889.
• Old Tassel's iulk, in Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 271, 1858, and In Roosevelt, op. cit., p. 816.
1 Ramsey, op. cit., p. 272; Roosevelt, op. cit., i>. :si7 el passim.
^Stevens "i>. cit., pp. 411-415.
tRoyce, Cherokee Nation, in Fifth Aim. Rep. Bureau "i Ethnology, \: 151, 1888.
L-
mooney] TREATY OF HOPEWELL 1785 61
tinning the contest alone, began to sue for peace. By seven years of
constant warfare they had been reduced to the lowest depth of misery,
almost indeed to the verge of extinction. Over and over again their
towns had been laid in ashes and their fields wasted. Their best war-
riors had been killed and their women and children had sickened and
starved in the mountains. Their great war chief. Oconostota, who
had led them to victory in 1780, was now a broken old man. and in
this year, at Echota, formally resigned his office in favor of his son,
The Terrapin. To complete their brimming cup of misery the small-
pox again broke out among them in 1783. 1 Deprived of the assistance
of their former white allies they wee left to their own cruel fate,
the last feeble resistance of the mountain warriors to the advancing
tide of settlement came to an end with the burning of ( 'owee town, 8 and
the way was left open to an arrangement. In the same year the North
Carolina legislature appointed an agent for the Cherokee and made
regulations for the government of traders among them.'
Relations with the United States
from the first treaty to the removal — 1785-1838
Passing over several unsatisfactory and generally abortive negotia-
tions conducted by the various state governments in L783-84, includ-
ing' the treaty of Augusta already noted. 4 we come to the turning-
point in the history of the Cherokee, their first treaty with the new
government of the United States for peace and boundary delimitation,
concluded at Hopewell (25) in South Carolina on November 28, 17s.">.
Nearly one thousand Cherokee attended, the commissioners for the
United States being Colonel Benjamin Hawkins (liti). of North Caro-
lina; General Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina; Cherokee Agent
Joseph Martin, of Tennessee, and Colonel Lachlan Mcintosh, of
Georgia. The instrument was signed by thirty-seven chiefs and prin-
cipal men. representing nearly as many different towns. The negotia-
tions occupied ten days, being complicated by a protest on the part of
North Carolina and Georgia against the action of the government com-
missioners in confirming to the Indians some lands which had already
been appropriated as bounty lands for state troops without the consent
of the Cherokee. On the other hand the Cherokee complained that
3,000 white settlers were at that moment in occupancy of unceded land
between the Holston and the French Broad. In spite of their protest
these intruders were allowed to remain, although the territory was
not acquired by treaty until some years later. As finally arranged
the treaty left the Middle and Upper towns, and those in the vicinity
1 Sec documents in Virginia State Papers, ill. pp. 234. 39S, S27. 1883.
- Ramsey. Tennessee, p. 280, 1853. 3 Ibid., p. 271.
*See Royce, Cherokee Nation, op.cit,, pp.151,152; Ramsey, op. cit., p.299et passim.
62 MVI'HS mf TIIK CHEROKEE [*th.
of Coosa river, undisturbed, while the whole country east of the Blue
ridge, with tin- Watauga ai 'I ( "uni Ucrhi m I settlements, was given over
to the white-. The general boundary followed the dividing ridge
between Cumberland river and the more southern waters of the Ten-
nessee eastward to the junction of the two forks of Holston, near the
present Kingsport, Tennessee, thence southward to the Blue ridge
and southwestward to a point not far from the present Atlanta.
Georgia, thence westward to the Coosa river and northwestward to a
creek running into Tennessee river a< the western line of Alabama.
thence northward with the Tennessee river to the beginning. The
lands south and west of these lines were recognized as belonging to the
Creeks and Chickasaw. Hostilities were to cease and the Cherokee
were taken under the protection of the United States. The proceed-
ings ended with the distribution of a few presents. 1
While the Hopewell treaty defined the relations of the Cherokee to
the general government and furnished a safe basis for future negotia-
tion, it yet failed to bring complete peace and security. Thousands
of intruders were still settled on Indian lands, and minor aggressions
and reprisals were continually occurring. The Creeks and the north-
ern tribes were still hostile and remained so for some years later, and
their warriors, cooperating with those of the implacable Chickamauga
towns, continued to annoy the exposed settlements, particularly on the
Cumberland. The British had withdrawn from the South, but the
Spaniards and French, who claimed the lower Mississippi and the
Gulf region and had their trading posts in west Tennessee, took every
opportunity to encourage the spirit of hostility to the Americans. '
But the spirit of the Cherokee nation was broken and the Holston
settlements were now too surely established to be destroyed.
The Cumberland settlements founded by Robertson and Donelson in
the winter of 1779-80 had had but short respite. Early in spring the
Indians Cherokee. Creeks. Chickasaw, and northern Indians had
begun a scries of attacks with the design of driving these intruders
from their lands, and thenceforth for years no man's life was safe out-
side the stockade. The long list of settlers shot down at work or while
hunting in the woods, of stock stolen and property destroyed, while
of sorrowful interest to those most nearly concerned, is too tedious for
recital here, and only leading events need be chronicled. Detailed
notice may be found in the works of local historians.
On the night of January L5, L781, a band of Indians stealthily
approached Freelaud's station and had even succeeded in unfastening
1 Indian Treaties, p. 8 el passim, i- ;:. For a full discussion of the Hopewell treaty, from official docu-
ments, see Royce, Cherokee Nation, in Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 1 >2 158, 1888, with map;
Treaty Journal, etc., American State Papers; Indian AfTnirs, i, pp. 38-44, 1832; also Stevens, Georgia,
n, pp. 117 129,1859; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 336,337, 1853; see also the map accompanying this work.
- I',:i \ , op. 'it. it 169 H'l. Agent Martin and Hopewell commissioners, ibid., pp, 31f
Bledsoe and Robertson letter, ibid., p. 165; Roosevelt, Winning of the West. it. p.Stts, l«w.
MOONEY] HOSTILITY OF HIWASSEE AND CHICK All AUG A TOWNS 63
the strongly barred gate when Robertson, being awake inside, heard
the noise and sprang up just in time to rouse the garrison and beat off
the assailants, who continued to fire through the loopholes after they
had been driven out of the fort. Only two Americana were killed,
although the escape was a narrow one. 1
About three months later, on April 2, a large body of Cherokee
approached the fort at Nashville (then called Nashborough, or simply
'"the Bluff"), and by sending a decoy ahead succeeded in drawing a
large part id' the garrison into an ambush. It seemed that they would
be cut otl'. as the Indians were between them and the fort, when those
inside loosed the dogs, which rushed so furiously upon the Indians
that the latter found work enough to defend themselves, and were
finally forced to retire, carrying with them, however, five American
scalps. 2
The attacks continued throughout this and the next year to such an
extent that it seemed at one time as if the Cumberland settlements
must be abandoned, but in June. 1783, commissioners from Virginia
and North Carolina arranged a treaty near Nashville (Nashborough)
with chiefs of the Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creeks. Tjiis treaty.
although it did not completely stop the Indian inroads, at least greatly
diminished them. Thereafter the Chickasaw remained friendly, and
only the Cherokee and < 'reeks continued to make trouble.
The valley towns on Hiwassee, as well as those of Chickamauga,
seem to have continued hostile. In L786a large body of their warriors.
led by the mixed-blood chief. John Watts, raided the new settlements
in the vicinity of the, present Knoxville, Tennessee. In retaliation
Sevier again marched his volunteers across the mountain to the valley
towns and destroyed three of them, killing a number of warriors; but he
retired on learning that the Indians were gathering to give him battle. 4
In the springof this year Agent Martin, stationedat Echota, had made
a tour of inspection of the Cherokee towns and reported that they
were generally friendly and anxious for peace, with the exception of
the Chickamauga band, under Dragging-canoe, who, acting with the
hostile ('reeks and encouraged by the French and Spaniard-, were
making preparations to destroy the Cumberland settlements. Not-
withstanding the friendly professions of the others, a party sent out
to obtain satisfaction for the murder of four Cherokee by the Tennes-
seeans had come back with fifteen white scalps, and sent word to Sevier
that they wanted peace, but if the whites wanted war they would get
it. 5 "With lawdess men on both sides it is evident that peace was in
jeopardy. In August, in consequence of further killing and reprisals,
commissioners of the new "state of Franklin." as Tennessee was now
1 Roosevelt, Winning of the West, n, p.353, 1889.
2 Ibid., p. :;.». 1889; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 452-454, 1853.
3 Ibid., pp. 358-366, 1889. * Ibid., p. 341, 1853.
"Martin k-tu-r of Miiy 11, 1786, ibid., p. 142
64 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE ink.U
called, concluded a negotiation, locally known as the "treat}' of
Coyatee," with the chiefs of the Overhill towns. In spite of references
to peace, love, and brotherly friendship, it is very doubtful if the era
of good will was in any wise hastened by the so-called treaty, as the
Tennesseeans, who bad just burned another Indian town in reprisal for
the killing of a white man. announced, without mincing words, that
they had been given by North Carolina against which state, l>\ the
way, they were then in organized rebellion the whole country north
of the Tennessee river as far west as the Cumberland mountain, and
that they intended to take it "by the -word, which is the best right to
all countries." As the whole of this country was within the limits of
the territory solemnly guaranteed to the Cherokee by the Hopewell
treaty only the year before, the chiefs simply replied that Congress
had -aid nothing to them on the subject, and SO the matter rested. 1
The theory of state's rights was too complicated for the Indian under-
standing.
While this conflict between state and federal authority continued,
with the Cherokee lands as the prize, there could lie no peace. In
March, L787, a letter from Echota, apparently written by Agent
Martin, speaks of a recent expedition against the Cherokee towns,
and the confusion and alarm among them inconsequence of the daily
encroachments of the "Franklinites" or Tennesseeans, who had pro-
ceeded to make good their promise by opening ;i hind office for the sale
of all the lands southward to Tennessee river, including even apart id' the
beloved town of Echota. At the same time messengers were coming
to the Cherokee from traders in the foreign interest, telling them that
England, France, and Spain had combined against the Americans and
urging them with promises of c-uns and ammunition to join in the
war. ' As a result each further advance of the Tennessee settlements,
in defiance as it was of any recognized treaty, was stubbornly con-
tested by the Indian owners of the land. The record of these encoun-
ters, extending over a period of several years, is too tedious for recital.
"Could a diagram he drawn, accurately designating every spot sig-
nalized by an Indian massacree, surprise, or depredation, or courageous
attack, defense, pursuit, or victory by the whites, or station or fort
or battlefield, or personal encounter, the whole of that section of
country would lie studded over with delineations of such incidents.
Every spring, every ford, every path, every farm, every trail, every
house nearly, in its first settlement, was once the scene of danger,
exposure, attack, exploit, achievement, death."' 1 The end was the
winning of Tennessee.
In the meantime the inroads of the Creeks and their Chickamauga
> Reports of Tennessee commissioners unci replies by Cherokee chiefs, etc., 1786, in Ramsey, Tennes-
see, pp. 843 846, 1853.
•Martin (?) letter of March 25, lTsv, ibid., i>. 869.
• Ibid., p. 870.
moonet] DEFEAT OF GENERAL MARTIN 1788 65
allies upon the Georgia frontier and the Cumberland settlements
around Nashville became so threatening that measures were taken for
a joint campaign by the combined forces of Georgia and Tennessee
("Franklin"). The enterprise came to naught through the interfer-
ence of the federal authorities. 1 All through the year 1788 we hear
of attacks and reprisals along the Tennessee border, although the
agent for the Cherokee declared in his official report that, with the
exception of the Chickamauga band, the Indians wished to lie at
peace if the whites would let them. In March two expeditions under
Sevier and Kennedy set out against the towns in the direction of the
French Broad. In May several persons of a family named Kirk were
murdered a few miles south of Knoxville. In retaliation Sevier
raised a large party and marching against a town on Hiwassee river —
one of those which had been destroyed some years before and rebuilt —
and burned it. killing a number of the inhabitants in the river while
they were trying to escape. lie then turned, and proceeding to the
towns on Little Tennessee burned several of them also, killing a num-
ber of Indians. Here a small party of Indians, including Abraham
and Tassel, two well-known friendly chiefs, was brutally massacred
by one of the Kirks, no one interfering, after they had voluntarily
come in on request of one of the officers. This occurred during the
temporary absence of Sevier. Another expedition under Captain
Favne was drawn into an ambuscade at Citico town and lost several
in killed and wounded. The Indians pursued the survivors almost to
Knoxville, attacking a small station near the present Maryville by
the way. They were driven off by Sevier and others, who in turn
invaded the Indian settlements, crossing the mountains and penetra-
ting as far as the valley towns on Hiwassee. hastily retiring as they
found the Indians gathering in their front. 2 In the same summer
another expedition was organized against the Chickamauga towns.
The chief command was given to General Martin, who left White's
fort, now Knoxville. with four hundred and fifty men and made a
rapid inarch to the neighborhood of the present Chattanooga, where
the main force encamped on the site of an old Indian settlement. A
detachment sent ahead to surprise a town a few miles farther down
the river was fired upon and driven back, and a general engagement
took place in the narrow pass between the bluff and the river, with
such disastrous results that three captains were killed and the men
so badly demoralized that thejr refused to advance. Martin was
compelled to turn back, after burying the dead officers in a large
townhouse, which was then burned down to conceal the grave. 3
In October a large party of Cherokee and Creeks attacked Gilles-
pie's station, south of the present Knoxville. The small garrison was
1 Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 393-399, 1853. = Ibid., pp. 417-423, 1853.
3 Ibid., pp. 517-519, and Brown's narrative, ibid., p. 515.
19 ETH — 01 5
66 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
overpowered af ter a shorl resistance, and twenty-eight persons, includ-
ing several women and children, were killed. The Indians left behind
a Letter signed by four chiefs, including John Watts, expressing
regret for what they called the accidental lolling of the women and
children, reminding the whites of their own treachery in killing
Abraham and the Tassel, and defiantly concluding, "When you move
off the land, then we will make peace." Other exposed stations were
attacked, until at last Sevier again mustered a force, cleared the
enemy from the frontier, and pursued the Indians as far as their
towns on the head waters of Coosa river, in such vigorous fashion that
they were compelled to ask for terms of peace and agree to a surrender
of prisoners, which was accomplished at Coosawatee town, in upper
Georgia, in the following April. 1
Among the captives thus restored to their friends were Joseph
Brown, a boy of sixteen, with his two younger sisters, who, with
several others, had been taken at Nickajack town while descending
the Tennessee in a fiatboat nearly a year before. His father and the
other men of the party, about ten in all, had been killed at the time.
while the mother and several other children were carried to various
Indian towns, some of them going to the Creeks, who had aided the
Cherokee in the capture. Young Brown, whose short and simple
narrative is of vivid interest, was at first condemned to death, but was
rescued by a white man living in the town and was afterward adopted
into the family of the chief, in spite of the warning of an old Indian
woman that if allowed to live he would one day guide an army to
destroy them. The warning was strangely prophetic, for it was
Brown himself who guided the expedition that finally rooted out the
Chickamauga towns a few years later. When rescued at Coosawatee
he was in Indian costume, with shirt, breechcloth, scalp lock, and
holes bored in his ears. His little sister, five years old. had become
so attached to the Indian woman who had adopted her. that she
refused to go to her own mother ami had to be pulled alone- by force. 3
The mother and another of the daughters, who had been taken by the
Creeks, were afterwards ransomed by McGillivray, head chief of the
Creek Nation, who restored them to their friends, generously refusing
any compensation for his kindness.
An arrangement had been made with the Chickasaw, in 1783, by
which they surrendered to the Cumberland settlement their own claim
to the lands from the Cumberland river south to the dividing ridge of
Duck river. 3 It was not, however, until the treaty of Hopewell, two
years later, that the Cherokee surrendered their claim to the same
region, and even then the Chickamauga warriors, with their allies, the
1 Ramsey, Tennessee, pp.516, 519.
■ Brown's narrative, etc., ibid.. pp. .308-516.
a Ibid., pp. 159, 489.
hookey] DESTRUCTION OF COLDWATER — 1787 <'>"
hostile Creeks and Shawano, refused to acknowledge the cession and
continued their attacks, with the avowed purpose of destroying the new
settlements. Until the final running of the boundary line, in 1797,
Spain claimed all the territory west of the mountains and south of
Cumberland river, and her agents were accused of stirring up the
Indians against the Americans, even to the extent of offering rewards
for American scalps. 1 One of these raiding parties, which had killed
the brother of Captain Robertson, was tracked to Coldwater, a small
mixed town of Cherokee and Creeks, on the south side of Tennessee
river, about the present Tuscumbia, Alabama. Robertson determined
to destroy it, and taking a force of volunteers, with a couple of Chick-
asaw guides, crossed the Tennessee without being discovered and
surprised and burnt the town. The Indians, who numbered less than
fifty men, attempted to escape to the river, but were surrounded and
over twenty of them killed, with a loss of but one man to the Tennes-
seeans. In the town were found also several French traders. Three
of these, who refused to surrender, were killed, together with a white
woman who was accidentally shot in one of the boats. The others
were afterward released, their large stock of trading goods having
been taken and sold for the benefit of the troops. The affair took
place about the end of June. 1787. Through this action, and an effort
made by Robertson about the same time to come to an understanding
with the Chickaniauga band, there was a temporary cessation of
hostile inroads upon the Cumberland, but long before the end of the
year the attacks were renewed to such an extent that it was found
necessary to keep out a force of rangers with orders to scour the
country and kill every Indian found east of the Chickasaw boundary. 2
The Creeks seeming now to be nearly as much concerned in these
raids as the Cherokee, a remonstrance was addressed to McGillivray,
their principal chief, who replied that, although the Creeks, like the
other southern tribes, had adhered to the British interest during the
Revolution, they had accepted proposals of friendship, but while
negotiations were pending six of their people had" been killed in the
affair at Coldwater. which had led to a renewal of hostile feeling. He
promised, however, to use his best efforts to bring about peace, and
seems to have kept his word, although the raids continued through
this and the next year, with the usual sequel of pursuit and reprisal.
In one of these skirmishes a company under Captain Murray followed
some Indian raiders from near Nashville to their camp on Tennessee
river and succeeded in killing the whole party of eleven warriors. 1
A treaty of peace was signed with the Creeks in 1790, but, owing to
the intrigues of the Spaniards, it had little practical effect, 4 and not
i Bledsoe and Robertson letter of June 12, 1787. in Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 465, 1853.
2 Ibid., with Robertson tetter, pp. 465-476.
a Ibid., pp. 479-486.
4 Monette, Valley of tin- Mi^i-Mppi, i. p ■■"'• lMr;.
68 MTTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ass.19
until Wayne'- decisive victory over the confederated northern tribes
in L 794 and the final destruction of the Nickajack towns in tin- same
\ ear did real peace came to the frontier.
I!v deed of cession of February .!•">. 17'.»n. Tennessee ceased to be a
pari of North < larolina and was organized under federal laws as " The
Territory of the United Mate- south of the < >hio river," preliminary
to taking full rank as a state six year- later. William Blount (27)
was appointed lir-t territorial governor and also superintendent for the
southern Indian-, with a deputy resident with each of the four prin-
cipal tribes. 1 Pensacola, Mobile, St. Louis, and other southern posts
were -till held by the Spaniard-, who claimed the whole country south
of the Cumberland, while the British garrisons had not yet been with-
drawn from the north. The resentment of the Indians at the occupancy
of their reserved and guaranteed lands by the whites was sedulously
encouraged from both quarters, and raids alone- the Tennessee fron-
tier were of common occurrence. At this time, according to the
official report of President Washington, over five hundred families of
intruders were settled upon lands belonging rightly to the Cherokee.
in addition to those between the French Broad and the Holston. 2
More than a year before the Secretary of War had stated that "the
disgraceful violation of the treaty of Hopewell with the Cherokee
requires the serious consideration of Congress. If so direct and man-
ifest contempt of the authority of the United States tie suffered with
impunity, it will he in vain to attempt to extend the arm of govern-
ment to the frontiers. The Indian tribes can have no faith in such
imbecile promises, and the lawless whites will ridicule a government
which shall on paper only make Indian treaties and regulate Indian
boundaries." 3 To prevent any increase of the dissatisfaction, the
general government issued a proclamation forbidding any further
encroachment upon the Indian kinds on Tennessee river; notwith-
standing which, early in L791, a party of men descended the river in
boats, and. landing on an island at the Muscle shoals, near the present
ruscumbia, Alabama, erected a blockhouse and other defensive works.
Immediately afterward the Cherokee chitd'. Class, with about sixty
warriors, appeared and quietly informed them that if they did notat
once withdraw he would kill them. After some parley the intruders
retired to their boats, when the Indians set tire to the buildings and
reduced them to ashes.'
To forestall more serious difficulty it was necessary to negotiate a
new treaty with a view to purchasing the disputed territory. Accord-
ingly, through the efforts of Governor Blount, a convention was held
with the principal men of the Cherokee at White's fort, now Knox-
1 Ramseyj Tennessee, pp. 522, ~<M ,56] . 1853.
» Washington to the Si nate, lugusl 11, 1790, American State Papers: Indian Airuir*. [,p.83 1832
Knox to Presldenl Washington, July 7, 1789, ibid., p.58.
* Ramsey, op. clt., pp. 550, 551.
moosey] TREATY OF HOLSTON 1791 69
ville, Tennessee, in the summer of 1791. AYith much difficulty the
Cherokee were finally brought to consent to a cession of a triangular
section in Tennessee and North Carolina extending from Clinch river
almost to the Blue ridge, and including nearly the whole of the
French Broad and the lower Holston, with the sites of the present
Knoxville, Greenville, and Asheville. The whole of this area, with a
considerable territory adjacent, was already fully occupied by the
whites. Permission was also given for a road from the eastern
settlements to those on the Cumberland, with the free navigation of
Tennessee river. Prisoners on both sides were to be restored and
perpetual peace was guaranteed. In consideration of the lands sur-
rendered the Cherokee were to receive an annuity of one thousand
dollars with some extra goods and some assistance on the road to
civilization. A treaty was signed by forty-one principal men of the
tribe and was concluded July 2, 1791. It is officially described as being
held "on the bank of the Holston, near the mouth of the French
Broad." and is commonly spoken of as the "treaty of Holston."
The Cherokee, however, were dissatisfied with the arrangement,
and before the end of the year a delegation of six principal chiefs
appeared at Philadelphia, then the seat of government, without any
previous announcement of their coming, declaring that when they had
1 n summoned by Governor Blount to a conference they were not
aware that it was to persuade them to sell lands; that they had
resisted the proposition for days, and only yielded when compelled
by the persistent and threatening demands of the governor; that the
consideration was entirely too small; and that they had no faith that
the whites would respect the new boundary, as they were in fact
already settling beyond it. Finally, as the treaty had been signed,
they asked that these intruders be removed. As their presentation of
the case seemed a just one and it was desirable that they should carry
home with them a favorable impression of the government's attitude
toward them, a supplementary article was added, increasing- the
annuity to eight thousand five hundred dollars. On account of renewed
Indian hostilities in Ohio valley and the desire of the government to
keep the good will of the Cherokee long enough to obtain their help
against the northern tribes, the new line was not surveyed until 17'.*7.'
As illustrating Indian custom it may be noted that one of the prin-
cipal signers of the original treaty was among the protesting delegates,
but having in the meantime changed his name, it appears on the
supplementary paragraph as "Iskagua. or Clear Sky, formerly
Nenetooyah, or Bloody Fellow.'"' As he had been one of the prin-
i Indian Treaties, pp. 34-38, 1837; Secretary of War, report, January 5, 1798, in American State
Papers, I, pp. 628-631, 1832; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 554-560, 1853; Etoyee, Cherokee Nation, Fifth
Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 158-170. with full discussion and map, 1888.
'- Indian Treaties, pp. 37, 38, 1837.
Til MTTH8 OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.akn.19
cipal raiders on the Tennessee frontier, the new name may have been
symbolicof bis change of bear! at the prospectof a return of peace.
The treaty seems to have bad little effect in preventing Indian hos-
tilities, probabrj because the intruders still remained upon the Indian
lands, and raiding still continued. The Creeks were known to be
responsible for someof the mischief, and the hostile Chickamaugas
were supposed to be the chief authors of the rest. 1 Even while the
Cherokee delegates were negotiating the treaty in Philadelphia a boat
which had accidentally run aground on the Muscle shoals was attacked
by a party of Indians under the pretense of offering assistance, one
man being killed and another severely wounded with a hatchet.'
While these negotiations had been pending at Philadelphia a young-
man named Leonard D. Shaw, a student at Princeton college, had
expressed to the Secretary of War an earnest desire lor a commission
which would enable him to accompany the returning Cherokee dele-
gates to their southern home, there to study Indian life and charac-
teristics. As the purpose seemed a useful one. and he appeared well
qualified tor such a work, he was accordingly commissioned as deputy
agent to reside among- the Cherokee to observe and report upon their
movements, to aid in the annuity distributions, and to render other
assistance to Governor Blount, superintendent for the southern tribes,
to study their language and home life, and to collect materials for an
Indian history. An extract from the official instructions under which
this first Tinted States ethnologist began his work will he of interest.
After defining his executive duties in connection with the annuity
distributions, the keeping of accounts and the compiling of official
reports. Secretary Knox continues —
A ilin- performance of your duty will probably require the exercise of all your
patience ami fortitude ami all your knowledge of the human character. Tin- school
will 1 ie a severe but interesting one. [f you should succeed in acquiring the affections
and a knowledge of the characters of the southern Indians, yon may lie at once use-
ful to the United States ami advance your own interest.
You will endeavor to learn their languages; this is essential to your communica-
tions. You will collect materials for a history of all the southern tribes and all
things thereunto belonging. You will endeavor to ascertain their respective limits.
make a vocabulary of their respective languages, teach them agriculture and such
useful arts as you may know or can acquire. You will correspond regularly with
Governor Blount, who is superintendent fur Indian affairs, ami inform him of all
occurrences. You will also cultivate a correspondence with Brigadier-General
McGillivray [the Creek chief], ami you will also keep a journal of your proceedings
and transmit them to the War Office. . . . You are to exhibit to Governor
Blount the Cherokee hook and all the writings therein, the messages to the several
tribes' of Indians, ami these instructions.
Your route will he hence to Reading; thence Harris's ferry [Harrisburg, Penn-
sylvania] to Carlisle; to ferry on the Potomac; to Winchester; to Staunton: to
■ Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 557, is",:;.
2 Abel deposition, April 16, 1792, American state Papers: Indian Affairs, i, p. 274, 1882.
mooney] RENEWAL OF WAR 17112 71
, and t<i Holston. I should hope that you would travel upwards of twenty
mile* each day, and that you would reach Holaton in about thirty days.'
The journey, which seemed then so long, was to be made by wagons
from Philadelphia to the head of navigation on Holston fiver, thence by
boats to the Cherokee towns. Shaw seems to have taken up his resi-
dence at Ustanali, which had superseded Echota as the ( Iherokee capital.
We hear of him as present at a council there in June of the same year.
with no evidence of unfriendliness at his presence." The friendly feel-
ing was of short continuance, however, for a few months later we find
him writing from Ustanali to Governor Blount that on account of the
aggressive hostility of the Creeks, whose avowed intention was to kill
every white man they met, he was not safe 50 yards front the house.
Soon afterwards the Chickamauga towns again declared war, on which
account, together with renewed threats by the ('recks, he was advised
by the Cherokee to leave Ustanali, which he did early in September,
1792, proceeding to the home of General Pickens, near Seneca, South
Carolina, escorted by a guard of friendly Cherokee. In the follow-
ing winter he was dismissed front the service on serious charges, and
his mission appears to have been a failure. 3
To prevent an alliance of the Cherokee, Creeks, and other south-
ern Indians with the confederated hostile northern tribes, the govern-
ment had endeavored to persuade the former to furnish a contingent
of warriors to act with the army against the northern Indians, and
special instruction had been given to Shaw to use his efforts for this
result. Nothing, however, came of the attempt. St Clair's defeat
turned the scale against the United States, and in September, 1792,
the Chickamauga towns formally declared war. 1
In November of this year the governor of Georgia officially reported
that a party of lawless Georgians had gone into the Cherokee Nation,
and had there burned a town and barbarously killed three Indians,
while about the same time two other Cherokee had been killed within
the settlements. Fearing retaliation, he ordered out a patrol of troops
to guard the frontier in that direction, and sent a conciliatory letter to
the chiefs, expressing his regret for what had happened. No answer
was returned to the message, but a few days later an entire family was
found murdered — four women, three children, and a young man — all
scalped and mangled and witlt arrows sticking in the bodies, while,
according to old Indian war custom, two war clubs were left upon
1 Henry Kii.'\. Secretary of War. Instructions to Leonard Shaw, temporary agent to the Cherokee
Nation of Indians, February 17, 1792. in American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i. 217. 1832; also Knox.
letters to Governor Blount, January ;;i ami February 16, 1792, ibid., pp. 245, 246.
- Estanaula conference report, June 26, 1792, ibid., i>. 271; Deraque deposition, September 15, 1792,
ibid., p. 292; Pickens, letter, September 12, 1792, ibid., p.317.
8 See letters of Shaw, Casey, Pickens, and Blount. 1792-93, ibid., pp. .'77, 278, 317, 136, 137, 140.
■"Knox, instructions to Shaw, February 17, 1792, ibid., p. 247; Blount, letter, March 20, 1792, ibid.,
p. 263; Knox, letters, October 9, 1792, ibid., pp. 261, 2U2.
72 SIXTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [kth.ami.19
the ground to -how by whom the deed wasd -. So swift was savage
vengeance.'
Early in 1792 a messenger who had been sent on business for Gov-
ernor Blount to the Chickamauga towns returned with the report thai
a party had just come in with prisoners and some fresh scalps, over
which the chiefs and warriors of two towns were then dancing; that
the SI ia\\ aiio were urging the Cherokee to join them against the Ameri-
cans; that a strong body of Creeks was on it- way against the Cum-
berland settlements, and that the ( 'reck chief. Met rillivray, was trying
to form a general confederacy of all the Indian tribes against the
whites. To understand this properly it must lie remembered that at
this time all the tribes northwest of the Ohio and as far as the heads
of the Mississippi were banded together in a grand alliance, headed
l>\ the warlike Shawano, for the purpose of holding the Ohio river as
the Indian boundary against the advancing tide of white settlement.
They had just cut to pieces one of the finest armies ever sent into the
West, under the veteran General St Clair (28), and it seemed for the
moment a- if the American advance would he driven hack behind the
Alleghenies.
In the emergency the Secretary of War directed Governor Blount
to hold a conference with the chiefs of the Chickasaw. Choctaw, and
Cherokee at Nashville in dune to enlist their warriors, if possible, in
active service against the northern tribes. The conference was held
as proposed, in August, but nothing seems to have come of it, although
the child's seemed to lie sincere in their assurances of friendship.
Very few of the Choctaw or Cherokee were in attendance. At the
annuity distribution of the Cherokee, shortly before, the chiefs had
also been profuse in declarations of their desire for peace.' Notwith-
standing all this the attacks along the Tennessee frontier continued to
such an extent that the blockhouses were again put in order ami gar-
risoned. Soon afterwards the governor reported to the Secretary of
War that the five lower Cherokee towns on the Tennessee (the Chicka-
mauga), headed by John Watts, had finally declared war against the
United State-, and that from three to six hundred warriors, including
a hundred Creeks, had started against the settlements. The militia
was at once called out. both in eastern Tennessee and on the Cumber-
land. On the Cumberland side it was directed that no pursuit should
he continued beyond the Cherokee boundary, the ridge between the
waters of Cumberland and Duck rivers. The order issued by Colonel
White, of Knox county, to each of his captains shows how great was
the alarm:
■ Governor Telfair's letters of November n ami December 5, with inclosure, 1792, American State
Papers: Indian Affairs, i, pp.332, 336, 887, 1832.
2 Rainwy, Trancm 1 , i.|..;,r,_'-.«,:;,-V.is, is:,:;.
mooney] ATTACK ON BUCHANAN'S STATION — L792 73
Knoxville, September n. 1792.
Sir: You arc hereby commanded to repair with your company to Knoxville,
equipped, to protect the frontiers; there is imminent danger. Bring with you two
days' provisions, if possible; but you are not to delay an hour on that head.
I am. sir. yours,
James White. 1
About midnight on the 30th of September, 1792, the Indian force,
consisting of several hundred Chickamaugas and other Cherokee,
("reeks, and Shawano, attacked Buchanan's station, a few miles south
of Nashville. Although numbers of families had collected inside the
stockade for safety, there were less than twenty able-bodied men
among them. The approach of the enemy alarmed the cattle, by
which the garrison had warning just in time to close the gate when
the Indians were already within a few yards of the entrance. The
assault wtis furious and determined, the Indians rushing up to the
stockade, attempting to set tire to it. and aiming their guns through
the port holes. One Indian succeeded in climbing upon the roof with
a lighted torch, but was shot and fell to the ground, holding his torch
against the logs as he drew his last breath. It was learned afterward
that he was a half blood, the stepson of the old white trader who had
once rescued the boy Joseph Brown at Nickajack. He was a desperate
warrior and when only twenty-two years of age had already taken six
white scalps. The attack was repulsed at every point, and the assail
ants finally drew off, with considerable loss, carrying their dead and
wounded with them, and leaving a number of hatchets, pipes, and other
spoils upon the ground. Among the wounded was the chief John
Watts. Not one of those in the fort was injured. It has been well
said that the defense of Buchanan's station by such a handful of men
against an attacking force estimated all the way at from three to seven
hundred Indians is a feat of bravery which has scarcely been surpassed
in the annals of border warfare. The effect upon the Indians must
have been thoroughly disheartening. 2
In the same month arrangements were made for protecting the fron-
tier along the French Broad by means of a series of garrisoned block-
houses, with scouts to patrol regularly from one to another. North
Carolina cooperating on her side of the line. The hostile inroads still
continued in this section, the Creeks acting with the hostile Cherokee.
One raiding party of Creeks having been traced toward Chilhowee
town on Little Tennessee, the whites were about to burn that and a
neighboring Cherokee town when Sevier interposed and prevented. 3
There is no reason to suppose that the people of these towns were
directly concerned in the depredations along the frontier at this period,
1 Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 662-565, ls:>:v
2 Blount, letter. October 2, 1792, in American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, p. 294, 1832; Blount, letter,
etc., in Ramsey, op. cit., pp. 566, 567, 599-601; see also Brown's narrative, ibid., 511, 512; Royce, Cherokee
Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 170, 1888.
3 Ramsey, op. cit., 569-571.
74 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE unt.M
the mischief I >< ■ i 1 1 <j- done by those farther to the south, in conjunction
with the ( ireeks.
Toward the close of this year, L792, Captain Samuel Handley, while
leading ;i small party of men to reenforce the ( Cumberland settlement,
was attacked by a mixed force of Cherokee, Creeks, and Shawano,
near the Grab Orchard, west of the presenl Kingston, Tennessee.
Becoming separated from his men he encountered a warrior who had
lifted his hatchet to >trikc when Handley seized the weapon, crying
out "Canaly" (for higtona'lii), "friend," to which the Cherokee
responded with tin' same word, at oner lowering his arm. Handley
was carried to Willstown, in Alabama, where he was adopted into the
Wolf elan (29) and remained until the next spring. After having
made use of his services in writing a peace letter to Governor Blount
the Cherokee finally sent him home in safety to his friends under a
protecting escort of eight warriors, without any demand for ransom.
He afterward resided near Tellico blockhouse, near Loudon, where,
after the wars were over, his Indian friends frequently came to visit
and stop with him. 1
The year 1T'.»H began with a series of attacks all along the Tennes-
see frontier. As before, most of the depredation was by Chicka-
maugas and Creeks, with some stray Shawano from the north. The
Cherokee from the towns on Little Tennessee remained peaceable, but
their temper was sorely tried by a regrettable circumstance which
occurred in June. While a number of friendly chiefs were assembled
for a conference at Echota, on the express request of the President,
a party of men under command of a Captain John Beard sud-
denly attacked them, killing about fifteen Indians, including several
chiefs and two women, one of them being the wife of Hanging-maw
(Ushwa'li-guta), principal chief of the Nation, who was himself
wounded. The murderers then tied, leaving others to suffer the conse-
quences. Two hundred warriors at once took up arms to revenge their
loss, and only the most earnest appeal from the deputy governor could
lest rain them from swift retaliation. While the chief , whose wife
was thus murdered and himself wounded, forebore to revenge himself,
in order not to bring war upon his people, the Secretary of War was
obliged to report. " to my great pain, I find to punish Beard by law just
now is out of the question." Beard was in fact arrested, but the trial
was a farce and he was acquitted. 8
Believing that the Cherokee Nation, with the exception of the
Chickamaugas, was honestly trying to preserve peace, the territorial
government, while making provision for the safety of the exposed
settlements, had strictly prohibited any invasion of the Indian country.
The frontier people were of a different opinion, and in spite of the
prohibition a company of nearly two hundred mounted men under
i Ramsey, Tennessee, pp.571-673, 1863. »Ibid.,pp
moosey] MASSACRE AT CAVITTS STATION 1793 75
Colonels Doherty and McFarland crossed over the mountains in the
summer of this year and destroyed six of the middle towns, returning
with fifteen scalps and as many prisoners.'
Late in September a strong force estimated at one thousand war-
riors — seven hundred Creeks and three hundred Cherokee — under John
Watts and Doublehead, crossed the Tennessee and advanced in the
direction of Knoxville. where the public stores were then deposited.
In their eagerness to reach Knoxville they passed quietly by one or
two smaller settlements until within a short distance of the town, when,
at daybreak of the 25th, they heard the garrison tire the sunrise gun
and imagined that they were discovered. Differences had already
broken out among the leaders, and without venturing to advance
farther they contented themselves with an attack upon a small block-
house a few miles to the west, known as Cavitts station, in which at
the time were only three men with thirteen women and children.
After defending themselves bravely for some time these surrendered
on promise that they should be held for exchange, but as soon as they
came out Doublehead's warriors fell upon them and put them all to
death with the exception of a boy, who was saved by John Watts.
This bloody deed was entirely the work of Doublehead. the other
chiefs having done their best to prevent it. 2
A force of seven hundred men under General Sevier wasat once put
upon their track, with orders this time to push the pursuit into the
heart of the Indian nation. Crossing Little Tennessee and Hiwassee
they penetrated to Ustanali town, near the present Calhoun, Georgia.
Finding it deserted, although well tilled with provision, they
rested there a few days, the Indians in the meantime attempting
a night attack without success. After burning the town. Sevier con-
tinued down the river to Etowah town, near the present site of Rome.
Here the Indians— Cherokee and Creeks — had dug intrenchments and
prepared to make a stand, but, being outflanked, were defeated with
loss and compelled to retreat. This town, with several others in the
neighborhood belonging to both Cherokee and Creeks, w-as destroyed,
with all the provision of the Indians, including three hundred cattle,
after which the army took up the homeward march. The Americans
had lost but three men. This was the last military service of Sevier. 3
During the absence of Sevier's force in the south the Indians made
a sudden inroad on the French Broad, near the present Dandridge,
killing and scalping a woman and a boy. While their friends were
accompanying the remains to a neighboring burial ground for "inter-
ment, two men who had incautiously gone ahead were tired upon. One
1 Ramsey. Tennessee, p. 579.
2 Ibid., pp. 580-583 1853; Smith. letter, September 27, 1793, American stale Papers: Indian Affairs,
[, p. 468, 1832, Ramsey gives tin- Indian force 1,000 warriors; smith *nys that in many places they
marched in tiles of Js abreast, each tile being supposed to number 40 men.
a Ramsey, up. cit., pp. 584-588. ■
76 MYTH- OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.akk.19
of them escaped, but the other one was fouud killed and scalped when
the resl of thecompany came up, and was buried with the first victims..
Sevier's success brought temporary respite to the Cumberland settle-
ments. During the early part of the year the Indian attacks by
small raiding parties had been so frequent and annoying that a force
of men had been kept out on patrol service under officers who adopted
with some success the policy of hunting the Indian- in their camping
places in the thickets, rather than waiting for them to come i n t < . the
settlements.'
In February, 1 T'.*4. the Territorial assembly of Tennessee met at
Knoxvillc and. among other business transacted, addressed a strong
memorial to Congress calling for mure efficient protection for the
frontier and demanding a declaration of war against the Creeks and
Cherokee. The memorial states that since the treaty of Eiolston (July,
L791), these two tribes bad killed in a most barbarous and inhuman
manner more than two hundred citizens of Tennessee, of both sexes.
had carried others into captivity, destroyed their stock, burned
their houses, and laid waste their plantations, had robbed the citizens
of their slaves and stolen at least two thousand horses. Special atten-
tion was directed to the two great invasion- in September, 17'.':.'. and
September, 1793, and the memorialists declare that there was scarcely
a man of the assembly hut could tell of "a dear wife or child, an aged
parent or near relation, besides friends, massacred by the hands of these
bloodthirsty nations in their house or fields." 8
In the meantime the raids continued and every scattered cabin was a
target for attack. In April a party of twenty warriors surrounded
the house of a man named Casteel on the French Broad about nine
miles above Knoxville and massacred father, mother, and four children
in most brutal fashion. One child only was left alive, a girl of ten
years, who was found scalped and bleeding from six tomahawk gashes,
vet survived. The others were buried in one grave. The massacre
roused such a storm of excitement that it required all the effort
of the governor and the local officials to prevent an invasion in force
of the Indian country. Tt was learned that Doublehead. of the Chicka-
mauga towns, was trying to get the support of the valley towns, which,
however, continued to maintain an attitude of peace. The friendly
Cherokee also declared that the Spaniards were constantly instigating
the lower tow ns to hostilities, although John Watts, one of their prin-
cipal chiefs, advocated peace. '
In June a boat under command of William Scott, laden with pot-,
hardware, and other property, and containing six white men. three
women, four children, and twenty negroes, left Knoxville to descend
I Ramsey. Tennessee, pp. 590. 602-605. 1853.
i Haywood, civil and Political Historj of Tennessee, pp 800-802; Knoxville, 1828
ii, mi pp 308-308,1828; Ramsey, op. cit., pp. 591 594. Haywood's history of this period Is little more
than a continuous record of killings and petty encounters.
mooney] CONFLICTS WITH CREEKS — 1794 ii
Tennessee river to Natchez. As it passed the Chickamauga towns it
was fired upon from Running Water and Long island without damage
The whites returned the tire, wounding two Indians. A large party of
Cherokee, headed by White-man-killer (Une'ga-dihi"). then started in
pursuit of the boat, which they overtook at Muscle shoals, where they
killed all the white people in it. made prisoners of the negroes, an. I
plundered the goods. Three Indians were killed and one was wounded
in the action. 1 It is said that the Indian actors in this massacre tied
across the Mississippi into Spanish territory and became the nucleus of
the Cherokee Nation of the West, as will be noted elsewhere.
On June 26, 1794, another treaty, intended to be supplementary to
that of Holston in 1791, was negotiated at Philadelphia, being signed
by the Secretary of War and by thirteen principal men of the Chero-
kee. An arrangement was made for the proper marking of the
boundary then established, and the annuity was increased to five
thousand dollars, with a proviso that fifty dollars were to be deducted
for every horse -tolen by the Cherokee and not restored within three
months. 2
In July a man named John Ish was shot down while plowing in his
field eighteen miles below Knoxville. By order of Hanging-maw, the
friendly chief of Echota, a party of Cherokee took the trail and cap-
tured the murderer, who proved to be a Creek, whom they brought
in to the agent at Tellico blockhouse, where he was formally tried
and hanged. When asked the usual question he said that his people
were at war with the whites, that he had left home to kill or be killed.
that he had killed the white man and would have escaped but for the
Cherokee, and that there were enough of his nation to avenge his
death. A few days later a party of one hundred Creek warriors
crossed Tennessee river against the settlements. The alarm was given
by Hanging-maw. and fifty-three Cherokee with a few federal troops
started in pursuit. On the loth of August they came up with the
Creeks, killing one and wounding another, one Cherokee being slightly
wounded. The Creeks retreated and the victors returned to the
Cherokee towns, where their return was announced by the death song
and the tiring of guns. "The night was spent in dancing the scalp
dance, according to the custom of warriors after a victory over their
enemies, in which the white and red people heartily joined. The
Upper Cherokee had now stepped too far to go back, and their pro-
fessions of friendship were now no longer to be questioned." In the
same month there was an engagement between a detachment of about
1 Haywood, Civil and Political History of Tennessee, p. 308.1823; Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 594. 1853; see
also memorial in Putnam, Middle Tennessee, p. 502, 1859. Haywi lod calls the leader Unacala, which
should be Une'ga-dihl', " White-man-killer.* ' Compare Hayw 1's statement with that of Wash-
burn, on page 100.
^Indian Treaties, pp. 39,40, 1837; Royce, Cherokee Nation. Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp. 171, 172, 1SS8: Documents of 17'.>7-v\ American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, pp. 628-631, 1832.
The treaty is not mentioned by the Tennessee historians.
78 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ajhi.19
forty soldiers and a large body of Creeks near ('rah ( >rchard, in which
several of each were killed. 1 It is evident that much of the damage
on hnth sides <>t' the Cumberland range was due to the Creeks.
In the meantime Governor Blount was trying to negotiate peace
with tin' whole Cherokee Nation, but with little success. The Cher-
okee claimed to he anxious for permanent peace, hut said thai it was
impossible to restore the property taken by them, as it had been taken
in war, and they had themselves been equal losers from the white-.
They said also that they COuld not prevent the hostile Creeks from
passing through their territory. About the end of July it was learned
that a strong body of ('reeks had started north against the settlements.
The militia was at once ordered out alone- the Tennessee frontier, and
the friendly Cherokees offered their services, while measures were
taken to protect their women and children from the enemy. The
( 'reeks advanced as far as Willstown, when the news came of the com-
plete defeat of the confederated northern tribes by General Wayne
(30), and fearing the same fate for themselves, they turned back and
scattered to their towns. -
The Tennesseeans. especially those on the Cumberland, had lone- ago
come to the conclusion that peace could he brought about only through
the destruction of the Chickamauga towns. Anticipating some action
of this kind, which the general government did not think necessary or
advisable, orders against any such attempt had been issued by the
Secretary of War to Governor Blount. The frontier people went
about their preparations, however, and it is evident from the result
that the local military authorities were in connivance with the under-
taking. General Robertson was the chief organizer of the volunteers
about Nashville, who were reenforced by a company id' Kentuckians
under Colonel Whitley. Major Ore had been sent by Governor
Blount with a detachment of troops to protect the Cumberland settle-
ments, and on arriving at Nashville entered as heartily into the project
as if no counter orders had ever been issued, and was given chief com-
mand of the expedition, which for this reason is commonly known as
■•( he's expedition."
< )n September 7. L794, the army of five hundred and fifty mounted
men left Nashville, and five days later crossed the Tennessee near the
mouth of the Sequatchee river, their guide being the same Joseph
Brown of whom the old Indian woman had said that he would one day
bring the soldiers to destroy them. Having left their horses on the
other side of the river, they moved up along the south hank just after
daybreak of the L3th and surprised the town of Nickajack, killing
several warriors and taking a Dumber of prisoners. Some who
attempted to escape in canoes were shot in the water. The warriors
-.1, Civil 1 Political Historj oi Tennessee, pp 809-311, 1828; Ramsey, rennessee, pp. 594,
-IImvu l,op.cit.,pp 314-316; Ramsey, op. eit., p, 06.
mooney] END OB 1 CHEROKEE WAR J 79-1 79
iii Running Water town, four miles above, heard the firing and came
at once to the assistance of their friends, but wen 1 driven back after
attempting to hold their ground, and the second town shared the fate
of the first. More than fifty Indians had been killed, a number were
prisoners, both towns and all their contents had been destroyed, with
a loss to the assailants of only three men wounded. The Breath, the
chief of Running Water, was among those killed. Two fresh scalps
with a large quantity of plunder from the settlements were found in
the towns, together with a supply of ammunition said to have been
furnished by the Spaniards. 1
Soon after the return of the expedition Robertson sent a message to
John Watts, the principal leader of the hostile Cherokee, threatening
a second visitation if the Indians did not very soon surrender their
prisoners and give assurances of peace. 2 The destruction of their
towns on Tennessee and Coosa and the utter defeat of the northern
confederates had now broken the courage of the Cherokee, and on their
own request Governor Blount held a conference with them at Tellico
blockhouse, November 7 and 8, 1794, at which Hanging-maw, head
chief of the Nation, and Colonel John Watt, principal chief of the hos-
tile towns, with about four hundred of their warriors, attended. The
result was satisfactory; all differences were arranged on a friendly
basis and the long Cherokee war came to an end. 3
Owing to the continued devastation of their towns during the Rev-
olutionary struggle, a number of Cherokee, principally of the Chicka-
mauga band, had removed across the Ohio about 1782 and settled on
Paint creek, a branch of the Scioto river, in the vicinity of their
friends and allies, the Shawano. In 17*7 they were reported to num-
ber about seventy warriors. They took an active part in the hostili-
ties along the Ohio frontier and were present in the great battle at the
Maumee rapids, by which the power of the confederated northern tribes
was effectually broken. As they had failed to attend the treaty con-
ference held at Greenville in August, 1795, General Wayne sent them
a special message, through their chief Long-hair, that if they refused
to come in and make terms as the others had done they would be con-
sidered outside the protection of the government. Upon this a part
of them came in and promised that as soon as they could gather their
crops the w T hole band would leave Ohio forever and return to their
people in the south. 4
'Haywood, Political and civil History of Tennessee, pp. 392-396. 1823; Ramsey, Tennessee (with
Major Ore's report), pp. 608-618, 1853; Royce, Cherokee Nation. Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau Ethnology, p L71,
1888; Ore, Robertson, and Blount, reports, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, pp. 632-634, 1832
-Ramsey, op. cit., p. 618.
Tellico lferenee, November 7-8, 1794, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i. pp. 536-538, ls:!2,
Royce, op. cit.. p. 173; Ramsey, op. cit, p. 596.
'Beaver's talk. 17sl, Virginia state Papers, in, p. 571,1883; McDowell, report, 1786, ibid., iv, p. 118,
1884; McDowell, report, 1787, ibid., p. 286: Todd, letter, 1787, ibid., p. 277; Tellico conference. Novem-
ber 7, 1794, American State Papers; Indian Affairs, I, p. 538, 1832; Greenville treaty conference, August,
1795, ibid., pp. 582-583.
80 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.akn.19
The Creeks were -till hostile and continued their inroads upon the
western settlements. Early in January, 17'.i.">. Governor Blount held
another conference with the Cherokee and endeavored t" persuade
them i" organise a company of their young men to patrol the frontier
against the Creeks, but to this proposal the chiefs refused to consent. 1
In the next year it was discovered that a movement was on foot to
take possession of certain Indian lands south of the Cumberland on
pretense of authority formerly granted by North Carolina for the
relief of Revolutionary soldiers. As such action would almost surely
have resulted in another Indian war. Congress interposed, on the rep-
resentation of President Washington, with an act for the regulation of
intercourse between citizens of the United States and the various
Indian tribes. Its main purpose was to prevent intrusion upon lands
to which the Indian title had not been extinguished by treaty with the
general government, and under its provisions a number of squatters
were ejected from the Indian country and removed across the boundary.
The pressure of border sentiment, however, was constantly for extend-
ing the area of white settlement and the result was an immediate agita-
tion to procure another treaty cession. :
In consequence of urgent representations from the people of Ten-
nessee, Congress took steps in IT'.tT for procuring a new treaty with
the Cherokee by which the ejected settlers might '»■ reinstated and the
boundaries of the new state so extended as to bring about closer com-
munication between the eastern settlements and those on the ( lumber-
land. Tin 1 Revolutionary warfare had forced the Cherokee west and
south, and their capital and central gathering place was now Ustanali
town, near the present Calhoun. Georgia, while Echota, their ancient
capital and beloved peace town, was almost on the edge of the white
settlements. The commissioners wished to have the proceedings con-
ducted at Echota, while the Cherokee favored Ustanali. After some
debate a choice was made of a convenient place near Tellico block-
house, where the conference opened in July, hut was brought to an
abrupt (dose by the peremptory refusal of the Cherokee to sell any
land- or to permit the return of the ejected settlers.
The rest of the summer was spent in negotiation alone' the linos
already proposed, and on October 2, L798, a treaty, commonly known
as the "first treaty of Tellico." was concluded*at the same place, and
was signed by thirty-nine chiefs on behalf of the Cherokee. By this
t reaty the Indians ceded a tract between ( !linch river and the Cumber-
land ridge, another alone- the northern hank of Little Tennessee
extending up to Chilhowee mountain, and a third in North Carolina mi
the heads of French Broad and Pigeon rivers and including the sites
i Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. IT:;, 1888
s Ibid., pp. 174,175; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp ''7'.' • -
mooxey] CONDITION OF CHEROKEE IX 1800 81
of the present Waynesville and Hendersonville. These cessions
included most or all of the lands from which settlers had been ejected.
Permission was also given for laying out the "Cumberland road." to
connect the east Tennessee settlements with those about Nashville. In
consideration of the lands and rights surrendered, the United States
agreed to deliver to the Cherokee five thousand dollars in goods, and
to increase their existing annuity by one thousand dollars, and as usual,
to •■continue the guarantee of the remainder of their country forever."'
Wayne's victory over the northern tribes at the battle of the Mau-
niee rapids completely broke their power and compelled them to accept
the terms of peace dictated at the treaty of Greenville in the summer
of 1795. The immediate result was the surrender of the Ohio river
boundary by the Indians and the withdrawal of the British garrisons
from the interior posts, which up to this time they had continued to
hold in spite of the treaty made at the close of the Revolution. By
the treaty made at Madrid in October, L795, Spain gave up all claim
on the east side of the Mississippi north of the thirty-first parallel, but
on various pretexts the formal transfer of posts was delayed and a
Spanish garrison continued to occupy San Fernando de Barrancas, at
the present Memphis. Tennessee, until the fall of 1797, while that at
Natchez, in Mississippi, was not surrendered until March. 1798. The
Creeks, seeing the trend of affairs, had made peace at Colerain.
Georgia, in June, 179t>. With the hostile European influence thus
eliminated, at least for the time, the warlike tribes on the north and
on the south crushed and dispirited and the Chickamauga towns wiped
out of existence, the Cherokee realized that they must accept the
situation and, after nearly twenty years of continuous warfare, laid \^
aside the tomahawk to cultivate the arts of peace and civilization.
The close of the century found them still a compact people (the
westward movement having hardly yet begun) numbering probably
about 20,000 souls. After repeated cessions of large tracts of land, to
some of which they had but doubtful claim, they remained in recog-
nized possession of nearly 4:3,000 square miles of territory, a country
about equal in extent to Ohio. Virginia, or Tennessee. Of this 'terri-
tory about one half was within the limits of Tennessee, the remainder
being almost equally divided between Georgia and Alabama, with a
small area in the extreme southwestern corner of North Carolina. 2
The old Lower towns on Savannah river had been broken up for
twenty years, and the whites had so far encroached upon the Upper
towns that the capital and council tire of the nation had been removed
from the ancient peace town of Echota to Ustanali, in Georgia. The
i Indian Treaties, pp. 78-82. 1837; Ramsey, Tennessee, pp. 692-697. ls.">:;; Royce, Cherokei
(with map and full discussion i, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 174-lw, 1888.
-See table in Royce, op.cit., p. 378.
19 ETH— 01 6
82 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ank.19
towns on Coosa river and in Alabama were almost all of recent estab-
lishment, peopled by refugees from the east and north. The Middle
towns, in North Carolina, were still surrounded by Indian country.
Firearms had been introduced into the tribe about one hundred
years before, and the Cherokee had learned well their use. Such
civilized goods as hatchets, knives, clothes, and trinkets had become
so common before the first Cherokee war that the Indians had declared
that they could no longer live without the trader-. Horses and other
domestic animals had been introduced early in the century, and at the
opening of the war of L760, according to Adair, the Cherokee had "a
prodigious number of excellent horses." and although hunger had
compelled them t<> eat a great many of these during that period, they
still had, in 1775. from two to a dozen each, and bid fair soon to have
plenty of the best sort, as, according to the same authority, they were
skilful jockeys and nice in their choice. Some of them had grown
fond of cattle, and they had also an abundance of hoes and poultry,
the Indian pork being esteemed better than that raised in the white
settlements on account of the chestnut diet. 1 In Sevier's expedition
against the towns on Coosa river, in 1793, the army killed three hun-
dred beeves at Etowah and left their carcasses rotting on the ground.
While crossing the Cherokee country in 1796 Hawkins met an Indian
woman on horseback driving ten very fat cattle to the settlements for
sale. Peach trees and potatoes, as well as the native corn and beans,
were abundant in their fields, and some had bees and honey and did a
considerable trade in beeswax. They seem to have quickly recovered
from the repeated ravages of war. and there was a general air of pros-
perity throughout the nation. The native arts () f pottery and basket-
making were still the principal employment of the women, and the
warriors hunted with such success that a party of traders brought
down thirty wagon loads of skins on one trip." In dress and house-
building the Indian style was practically unchanged.
In pursuance of a civilizing policy, the government had agreed, by
the treaty of 17U1, to furnish the Cherokee gratuitously with farming
tools and similar assistance. This policy was continued and broadened
to such an extent that in L801 Hawkins reports that "in the Cherokee
agency, the wheel, the loom, and the plough is [sic] in pretty general
use. farming, manufactures, and stock raising the topic of conversation
among the men and women." At a conference held this year we find
the chiefs of the mountain towns complaining that the people of the
more western and southwestern settlements had received more than
their share of spinning wheels and cards, and were consequently more
advanced in making their own clothing as well as in farming, to which
1 Adair, American Indians, pp.280,281, I77.Y
2 See Hawkins, MS journal from South Carolina to tin- Creeks, 17%, in library of Georgia Historical
Society.
N uney] INTERMARRIAGE WITH WHITES 83
the others retorted that these things had been offered to all alike at
the same time, but while the lowland people had been quick to accept,
the mountaineers had hung back. "Those who complain came in late.
We have got the start of them, which we are determined to keep."
The progressives, under John Watts, Doublehead. and Will, threatened
to secede from the rest and leave those east of Chilhowee mountain to
shift for themselves. 1 We see here the germ of dissatisfaction which
led ultimately to the emigration of the western band. Along with
other things of civilization, negro slavery had been introduced and
several of the leading men were now slaveholders (31).
Much of the advance in civilization had been due to the intermar-
riage among them of white men, chiefly traders of the ante-Revolu-
tionary period, with a few Americans from the back settlements. The
families that have made Cherokee history were nearly all of this mixed
descent. The Doughertys, Galpins. and Adairs were from Ireland: the
Rosses, Vanns, and Macintoshes, like the McGillivrays and Graysons
among the Creeks, were of Scottish origin; the Waffords and others
were Americans from Carolina or Georgia, and the father of Sequoya
was a (Pennsylvania '.) German. Most of this white blood was of good
stock, very different from the "squaw man" element of the western
tribes. Those of the mixed blood who could afford it usually sent their
children away to be educated, while some built schoolhouses upon
their own grounds and brought in private teachers from the outside.
With the beginning of the present century we find influential mixed
bloods in almost every town, and the civilized idea dominated even the
national councils. The Middle towns, shut in from the outside world
by high mountains, remained a stronghold of Cherokee conservatism.
With the exception of Priber, there seems to be no authentic record
of any missionary worker among the Cherokee before 1800. There is,
indeed, an incidental notice of a Presbyterian minister of North Caro-
lina being on his way to the tribe in 1758, but nothing seems to have
come of it, and we find him soon after in South Carolina and separated
from his original jurisdiction. 2 The first permanent mission was estab-
lished by the Moravians, those peaceful German immigrants whose
teachings were so well exemplified in the lives of Zeisberger and
Heckewelder. As early as 1734, while temporarily settled in Georgia,
they had striven to bring some knowledge of the Christian religion to
the Indians immediately about Savannah, including perhaps some
stray Cherokee. Later on they established missions among the Dela-
wares in Ohio, where their first Cherokee convert was received in
1773, being one who had been captured by the Delawares when a
boy and had grown up and married in the tribe. In 1752 they had
formed a settlement on the upper Yadkin, near the present Salem,
1 Hawkins, Treaty Commission, 1801, manuscript No. 5, m library of Georgia Historical Society.
-Foote (?), in North Carolina Colonial Records, v. p. 1'2'J6, 1887.
M MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE lbth.akh.1S
North Carolina, where 1 1 n - \ made friendly acquaintance with the
Cherokee. 1 In L799, hearing thai the Cherokee desired teachers or
perhaps bj direct invitation of the chiefs two missionaries visited
the tribe to investigate the matter. Another visit wa- made in the
next summer, and a council was held at Tellico agency, where, after a
debate in which the Indians showed considerable difference <>t' opinion,
it was decided tn open a mission. Permission having been obtained
from the government, the work was begun in April. L801, by Rev.
Abraham Steiner and Rev. Gottlieb Byhan at the residence of David
Vann, a prominent mixed-blood chief, who lodged them in his own
bouse and gave them every assistance in building the mission, which
they afterward called Spring place, where now is the village of the
same name in Murray county, northwestern Georgia. They were
also materially aided by the agent, Colonel Return J. Meigs (32). It
was soon seen that the Cherokee wanted civilizers for their children,
and not new theologies, and when they found that a school could not
at once 1 pened the great council at I'stanali sent orders to the
missi iries to organize a school within six months or leave the nation.
Through Vann's help the matter was arranged and a school was
opened, several sons of prominent chiefs being among the pupils.
Another Moravian mission was established by Reverend .1. Gambold
at Oothcaloga, in the same county, in 1821. Roth were in flourishing
condition when broken up. with other Cherokee missions, by the Stair
of Georgia in 1834:. The work was afterward renewed beyond the
Mississippi. 5
In 1804 the Reverend Gideon Blackburn, a Presbyterian minister of
Tennessee, opened a school among the Cherokee, which continued for
several years until abandoned for lack of funds. 8
Notwithstanding the promise to the Cherokee in the treaty of 1798
that the Government would "continue the guarantee of the remain-
der of their country forever." measures were begun almost imme-
diately to procure another large cession of land and road privileges.
In spite of the strenuous objection of the Cherokee, who sent a
delegation of prominent chiefs to Washington to protest against any
further sales, such pressure was brought to hear, chiefly through the
efforts of the agent, Colonel Meigs, that the object of the Government
was accomplished, and in L804 and 1805 three treaties were negotiated
at Tellico agency, by which the Cherokee were shorn id' more than
eight thousand square miles of their remaining territory.
By the first of these treaties October 24, 1804 — a purchase was
made of a small tract in northeastern Georgia, known as the "Warlord
' North Carolina Colonial R rds, v. p. \, i.ss;.
JReichel, E. II.. Historical Sketch of the Church and Missions of the I nited Brethren, pp. 65 81;
hem en L848; Holmes, J. ait,. Sketches ol the Missions o! the United Brethren, pp. 124, 125,
109 i ! Dublin L818: II pson, A. ('.. Moravian Mis-ions, p. 341; New York, 1890; De Schweinitz,
Edmund, Life ol Zeisberger, pp. 894 196 Phils . 1870.
■ Morse, American Geography, i, p. 577, 1819.
mooney] TREATY OF WASHINGTON — 18(»6 85
settlement," upon which a party led by Colonel Wafford had located
some years before, under the impression that it was outside the bound-
ary established bythe Hopewell treaty. In compensation the Cherokee
were to receive an immediate payment of live thousand dollars in
goods or cash with an additional annuity of one thousand dollars. By
the other treaties — October 25 and u'7. L805 — a large tract was obtained
in central Tennessee and Kentucky, extending between the Cumber-
land range and the western line of the Hopewell treaty, and from
Cumberland river southwest to Duck river. One section was also
secured at Southwest point (now Kingston, Tennessee) with the design
of establishing there the state capital, which, however, was located at
Nashville instead seven years later. Permission was also obtained for
two mail roads through the Cherokee country into Georgia and Ala-
bama. In consideration of the cessions by the two treaties the United
States agreed to pay fifteen thousand six hundred dollars in working
implements, goods, orcash, with an additional annuity of three thousand
dollars. To secure the consent of some of the leading chiefs, the
treaty commissioners resorted to the disgraceful precedent of secret
articles, by which several valuable small tracts were reserved for
Doublehead and Tollunteeskee, the agreement being recorded as a part
of the treaty, but not embodied in the copy sent to the Senate for con-
firmation. 1 In consequence of continued abuse of his official position
for selfish ends Doublehead was soon afterward killed in accordance
with a decree of the chiefs of the Nation, Major Ridge being selected
as executioner. 2
By the treaty of October 25, 1805, the settlements in eastern Tennessee
were brought into connection with those about Nashville on the Cumber-
land, and the state at last assumed compact form. The whole southern
portion of the state, as defined in the charter, was still Indian coun-
try, and there was a strong and constant pressure for its opening, the
prevailing sentiment being in favor of making Tennessee river the
boundary between the two races. New immigrants were constantly
crowding in from the east. and. as Royce says, "the desire to settle
on Indian land was as potent and insatiable with the average border
settler then as it is now." Almost within two months of the last
treaties another one was concluded at Washington on January 7, 1806,
by which the Cherokee ceded their claim to a large tract between
Duck river and the Tennessee, embracing nearly seven thousand
' square miles in Tennessee and Alabama, together with the Long island
(Great island) in Holston river, which up to this time they had claimed
as theirs. They were promised in compensation ten thousand dollars
in five cash installments, a grist mill and cotton gin, and a life annuity
1 Indian treaties, pp.108, 121, 125, 1837; Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnol-
ogy, pp. 183 193, 1888 (map and full discussion I.
-McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes, n, p. 92, 1858.
86 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
of one hundred dollars for Black-fox, the aged head chief of the nation.
The signers of the instrument, including Doublehead and Tollunteeskee,
were accompanied to Washington by the same commissioners who had
procured the previous treaty. In consequence of some misunderstand
ing, the boundaries <>l' the ceded trad were Mill further extended in a
supple ntary treaty concluded at the Chickasaw Old Fields on the
Tennessee, on September 11. L807. As the country between Duck
river and the Tennessee was claimed also by t In- Chickasaw, their title
was extinguished by separate treaties.' The ostensible compensation
for this lust Cherokee cession, as shown by the treaty, was two thou
sand dollars, but it was secretly agreed by Agent Meigs that what he
calls a "silenl consideration" of one thousand dollars and some rifles
should be given to the chiefs who signed it. ;
In L807 Colonel Elias Earle, with the consent of the Government,
obtained a concession from the Cherokee for the establishment of iron
works at the mouth of Chickamauga creek, on the south side of Ten-
nessee river, to be supplied from ores mined in the Cherokee country.
It was hoped that this would be a considerable step toward the civili-
zation of the Indians, besides enabling the Government to obtain its
supplies of manufactured iron at a cheaper rate, hut after prolonged
effort the project was finally abandoned on account of the refusal of
the state of Tennessee to sanction the grant. 3 In the same year, by
arrangement with the general government, the legislature of Tennessee
attempted to negotiate with the Cherokee for that part of their unceded
lands lying within the state limits, but without success, owing to the
unwillingness of the Indians to part with any more territory, and their
special dislike for the people of Tennessee.*
In L810 the Cherokee national council registered a further advance
in civilization by formally abolishing the custom of clan revenge,
hitherto universal among the tribes. The enactment bears the signa-
tures of Black-fox (Ina'li), principal chief, and seven others, and reads
as follows:
In Council, Oostinaleh, April IS, 1810.
1. Be it known this .lay, That the various clans or tribes which compose the Cher-
okee nation have unanimously passed an act of oblivion for all lives for which they
may have been indebted one to the other, and have mutually agreed that after this
evening the aforesaid act shall become binding upon every clan or tribe thereof.
•1. Tlie aforesaid clans or tribes have also agreed that if, in future, any life should
be lost without malice intended, the innocent aggressor shall not be accounted guilty;
i Indian Treaties, pp. 132-136, 1837; Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Kip. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp. 193-197, 1888.
2 Meigs, letter, September 28, 1807, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i. p. 754, 1832 Royi
op.cit., p. 197.
si < treaty, December ^, 1807, and Jefferson's message, with inclosures, March 10, 1808, American
State Papers: Indian Affairs, i. pp. 752-754, 1832; Royce, op.cit., pp. 199-201.
• Ibid., pp. 201,202.
mooney] THE UNICOI TURNPIKE Si
and. should it so happen thai a brother, forgetting his natural affections, should
raise his hands in anger and kill his brother, he shall be accounted guilty of murder
and suffer accordingly.
::. If a man have a horse stolen, and overtake the thief, and sin mid his anger be
so great as to cause him to shed his hi 1, let it remain on his ow n conscience, bul
no satisfaction shall be required for his life, from his relative or clan he may have
belonged to.
Bj order of the seven clans. '
Under an agreement with the Cherokee in 1813a company composed
pf representatives of Tennessee, Georgia, and the Cherokee nation
was organized to lay out a free public road from Tennessee river to
the head of navigation on the Tugaloo branch of Savannah river, with
provision for convenient stopping places alone- the line. The road
was completed within the next three years, and became the great high-
way from the coast to the Tennessee settlements. Beginning on the
Tugaloo or Savannah a short distance below the entrance of Toccoa
creek, it crossed the upper Chattahoochee, passing through Clarkes-
ville, Nacoochee valley, the Unicoi gap. and Hiwassee in Georgia;
then entering North Carolina it descended the Hiwassee, passing
through Hayesville and Murphy and over the Great Smoky range into
Tennessee, until it reached the terminus at the Cherokee capital,
Echota, on Little Tennessee. It was officially styled the Unicoi turn-
pike,' but was commonly known in North Carolina as the Wachesa
trail, from Watsi'sa or Wachesa, a prominent Indian who lived near
the crossing-place on Beaverdam creek, below Murphy, this portion
of the road being laid out along the old Indian trail which already
bore that name. 3
Passing over for the present some negotiations having for their pur-
pose the removal of the Cherokee to the West, we arrive at the period
of the Creek war.
Ever since the treaty of Greenville it had been the dream of Tecum-
tha, the great Shawano chief (33), to weld again the conf ederacj' of the
northern tribes as a harrier against the further aggressions of the white
man. His own burning eloquence was ably seconded by the subtler
persuasion of his brother, who assumed the role of a prophet with a
new revelation, the burden of which was that the Indians must return
to their old Indian life it' they would preserve their national existence.
The new doctrine spread among all the northern tribes and at hist
reached those of the south, where TecumAha himself had gone to enlist
the warriors in the great Indian confederacy. The prophets of the
Upper Creeks eagerly accepted the doctrine and in a short time their
warriors were dancing the "dance of the Indians of the lakes." In
iln American State Papers: Indian Affairs, n, p. 283, 1831.
2 See contract appended to Washington treaty, 1819, Indian Treaties, pp. 269-271, 1837; Royce map,
Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1888.
3 Author's personal information.
MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE i ™
anticipation of an expected war with the United Stair- the British
agents in Canada had I n encouraging the hostile feeling toward the
Americans by talks and presents of goods and ammunition, while the
Spaniards also covertly fanned the flame of discontent.' At the beighl
of the ferment war was declared between thi- country and England on
June 28, 1812. Tecumtha, :it the bead of fifteen hundred warriors, at
once entered the British service with a commission as general, while
the Creeks began murdering and burning along the southern frontier,
after having vainly attempted to secure the cooperation of the ( Iherokee.
From the Creeks the new revelation was brought to the Cherokee,
whose priests at once began to dream dreams and to preach a return to
the old life as the only hope of the Indian rare. A greal medicine
dance was appointed at (Jstanali, the national capital, where, after the
dance was over, the doctrine was publicly announced and explained by
a Cherokee prophet introduced by a delegation from Coosawatee. He
began by saying that some of the mountain towns had abused him and
refused to receive his message, hut nevertheless he must continue to
hear testimony of his mission whatever might happen. The Cherokee
had broken the road which had been given to their fathers at the begin-
ningof the world. They hud taken the white man's clothes and trinkets.
they had beds and tables and mills; some even had hooks and cats. All
this was had, and because of it their gods were angry and the game
was leaving their country. If they would live and be happy as before
they must put off the white man's dress, throw away his mills and
looms, kill their cats, put on paint and buckskin, and be Indians again;
otherwise swift destruction would come upon them.
His speech appealed strongly to the people, who cried out in great
excitement that his talk was good. Of all those present only Major
Ridge, a principal child', had the courage to stand up and oppose it,
warning his hearers that such talk would inevitably lead to war with
the United States, which would end in their own destruction. The
maddened followers of the prophet sprang upon Ridge and would have
killed him hut for the interposition of friends. As it was. he was thrown
down and narrowly escaped with his life, while one of his defender-
was stabbed by his side.
The prophet had threatened after a certain time to invoke a terrible
storm, which should destroy all hut the true believers, who were
exhorted to gather for safety on one of the high peaks of the Great
Smoky mountains. In full faith they abandoned their bees, their
orchards, their slaves, and everything that had come to them from the
white man. and took up their toilsome march for the high mountains.
There they waited until the appointed day had come and passed, show-
1 Mooney, Ghost-dance Religion, Fourteenth Ami. Rep. Bim'au of Ethnology, p. 670 el passim,
1896; contemporary documents in American State Papers: [ndian Affairs,!, pp. 798-801, 845
moosev] BEGINNING OF CREEK WAR — 1813 89
in<r their hopes and fears t<> be groundless, when they sadly returned
to their homes and the great Indian revival among the Cherokee came
in an end. 1
Among the ('recks, where other hostile influences were at work, the
excitement culminated in the Creek war. Several murders and outrages
had already been committed, but it was not until the terrible massacre
at Fort Minis (34), on August 30, L813, that the whole American nation
was aroused. Through the influence of Ridge and other prominent
chiefs the Cherokee had refused to join the hostile Creeks, and on the
contrary had promised to assist the whites and the friendly towns. 2
More than a year before the council had sent a friendly letter to the
Creeks warning them against taking the British side in the approach-
ing war, while several prominent chiefs had proposed to enlist a Chero-
kee force for the service of the United States.' Finding that no help
was to be expected from the Cherokee, the Creeks took occasion to kill
a Cherokee woman near the town of Etowah, in Georgia. With the
help of a conjurer the murderers were trailed and overtaken and killed
on the evening of the second day in a thicket where they had concealed
themselves. After this there could be no alliance between the two
tribes.*
At the time of the Fort Mims massacre Mcintosh (35), the chief of
the friendly Lower Creeks, was visiting the Cherokee, among whom
he had relatives. By order of the Cherokee council he was escorted
home by a delegation under the leadership of Ridge. On his return
Ridge brought with him a request from the Lower Creeks that the
Cherokee would join with them and the Americans in putting down
the war. Ridge himself strongly urged the proposition, declaring
that if the, prophets were allowed to have their way the work of civil-
ization would be destroyed. The council, however, decided not to
interfere in the affairs of other tribes, whereupon Ridge called for
volunteers, with the result that so many of the warriors responded that
the council reversed its decision and declared war against the Creeks."
For a proper understanding of the situation it is necessary to state that
the hostile feeling was confined almost entirely to the Upper Creek
towns on the Tallapoosa, where the prophets of the new religion had
their residence. The half-breed chief, Weatherford (•".»'.). was the
leader of the war party. The Lower Creek towns on the Clu.ttahoo-
iSee Mooney, Ghost dance Religion, Fourteenth Aim. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 670-677, 1896;
McKennej and Hall, Indian Tribes, II, pp. 93-95, 1858; see also contemporary letters (1813, etc.) by
Hawkins. Cornells, and others in American state Papers: Indian Affairs, i, 1S32.
-Letters of Hawkins, Pinckney, and Cussetah King, July, 1813, American State Papers: Indian
Affairs, II, pp. 847-849, 1832.
:l Meigs, letter, May s. 1812, and Hawkins, letter. May 11, 1812, ibid., p.809.
4 Author's information from James I). Wafford.
'MeKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes, n, pi.. 96-97, IS 8
■ Mi MYTHS OF THE CHKEOKEE [bth inn- .19
chec, under Mcintosh, another half-breed chief , were friendly, and
acted with the Cherokee and the Americans against their own brethren.
It is not our purpose to give a history of the Creek war, but only
to note the part which the Cherokee had in it. The friendly Lower
Creeks, under Mcintosh, with a few refugees from the Upper towns,
operated chiefly with the army under Genera] Floyd which invaded
the southern pari of the Creels country from Georgia. Some friendly
Choctaw and Chickasaw also lenl their assistance in tin- direction.
The Cherokee, with some friendly Creeks of the Upper towns, acted
with tli*' armies under Generals White and .lack-on. which entered
the Creek country from the Tennessee side. While some hundreds
of their warriors were thus fighting in the field, the Cherokee at home
were busily collecting provisions for the American troops.
As Jackson approached from the north, about the end of October,
L813, be wa- met by runners asking him to come to the aid of Path-
killer, a Cherokee chief, who was in danger of being cut off by the
hostilcs. at his village of Turkeytown, on the upper Coosa, near the
present Center. Alabama. A fresh detachment on its way from east
Tennessee, under General White, was ordered by Jackson to relieve
the town, and successfully performed this work. White's force con-
sisted of one thousand men. including four hundred Cherokee under
Colonel Gideon Morgan and .John Lowrey. 1
As the army advanced down the Coosa the Creeks retired to Tallasee-
hatchee, on the creek of the same name, near the present Jacksonville,
Calhoun county. Alabama. One thousand men under General Coffee,
together with a company of Cherokee under Captain Richard Brown
and some few Creeks, were sent against them. The Indian auxiliaries
wore headdresses of white feathers and deertails. The attack was
made at daybreak of November •"». 1813, and the town was taken after
a desperate resistance, from which not one <ff the defenders escaped
alive, the Creeks having been completely surrounded on all sides.
Says Coffee in his official report:
They made all the resistance thai an overpowered soldier could '1<> — they fought as
long as "lie existed, but their destruction was very Boon completed. Our men rushed
up i" the doors of the house- ami in a few minutes killed the last warrior of then).
The enemy f ought with savage fury and met death with all its horrors, without
shrinking or complaining — not one asked to he spared, butfought as long as they
could stand or sit.
< )f such fighting stuff did the Creeks prove themselves, against over
whelming numbers, throughout the war. The bodies of nearly two
hundred dead warriors were counted on the field, and the general
reiterates that "not one of the warriors escaped." A number of
women and children were taken prisoners. Nearly every man of the
Creeks had a how with a bundle of arrows, which he used after the
'Drake, Indians, pp. 895-396, 1880; Pickett, Alabama, p, 556, reprint "i 1896.
mookey] BATTLES OF TALLADEGA AND HILLABEE — 1813 91
first fire with his gun. The American loss was only five killed and
forty-one wounded, which may not include the Indian contingent. 1
White's advance guard, consisting chiefly of the four hundred other
Cherokee under Morgan and Lowrey, reached Tallaseehatchee the same
evening, only to find it already destroyed. They picked up twenty
wounded Creeks, whom they brought with them to Turkeytown. 5
The next great battle was at Talladega, on the site of the present
town of the same name, in Talladega county. Alabama, on November 9,
1813. Jackson commanded in person with two thousand infantry and
cavalry. Although the Cherokee are not specifically mentioned they
were a part of the army and must have taken part in the engagement.
The town itself was occupied by friendly Creeks, who were besieged
l>y the hostiles, estimated at over one thousand warriors on the out-
side. Here again the battle was simply a slaughter, the odds being
two to one. the Creeks being also without cover, although they fought
.so desperately that at one time the militia was driven back. They
left two hundred and ninety-nine dead bodies on the field, which,
according to their own statement afterwards, was only a part of
their total loss. The Americans lost fifteen killed and eighty-five
wounded. 3
A day or two later the people of Hillabee town, about the site of
the present village of that name in Clay county. Alabama, sent mes-
sengers to Jackson's camp to ask for peace, which that commander
immediately granted. In the meantime, even while the peace mes-
sengers were on their way home with the good news, an army of one
thousand men from east Tennessee under General White, who claimed
to be independent of Jackson's authority, together with four hundred
Cherokee under Colonel Gideon Morgan and John Lowrey. surrounded
the town on November 18, 1813, taking it by surprise, the inhabitants
having trusted so confidently to the success of their peace embassy
that they had made no preparation for defense. Sixty warriors were
killed and over two hundred and fifty prisoners taken, with no loss to
the Americans, as there was practically no resistance. In White's
official report of the affair he states that he had sent ahead a part of
his force, together with the Cherokee under Morgan, to surround the
town, and adds that "Colonel Morgan and the Cherokees under his
command gave undeniable evidence that they merit the employ of
their government."' Not knowing that the attack had been made
without Jackson's sanction or knowledge, the Creeks naturally con-
1 Coffee, report, etc., in Drake, Indians, p. 396, 1880; Lossing, Field Book of the War of 1812, pp.
762,763 [n. d. (1869)]; Pickett, Alabama, p. 553, reprint of 18%.
2 Ibid.,p. 556.
3 Drake, Indians, p. 396, 1880; Pickett, op.cit., pp. 554, 555.
'White's report, etc., in Fay and Davison, Sketches of the War, pp. 240. 241: Rutland, Vt., 1815;
Low. John! Impartial History of the War, p. 199; New York, 1815; Drake, op. cit., p. 397; Pickett, op.
cit., p. 557; Lossing, op. cit., p. 767. Low says White had about 1,100 mounted men, -'including
upward "f 300 Cherokee Indians." Pickett gives White 400 Cherokee.
92 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.
eluded thai peace overtures were of no avail, and thenceforth until
tlir close of the war there was m> talk of surrender.
On November 29, L813, the Georgia army under General Floyd,
consisting of nine hundred and fifty American troops and four hun-
dred friendly Indian-, chiefly Lower Creeks under Mcintosh, took
and destroyed Autossee town on the Tallapoosa, west of the present
Tuskegee. killing about two hundred warriors and burning four hun-
dred well-buill nouses. On December .'•': the Creeks were again
defeated by General Claiborne, assisted by some friendly Choctaws,
at Ecanachaca or the Holy Ground on Alabama river, near the present
Benton in Low ndes county. This town and another a few miles awav
were also destroyed, with a great quantity of provisions and other
property. 1 It is doubtful if any Cherokee were concerned in either
action.
Before the close of the year Jackson's force in northern Alabama
had been so far reduced by mutinies and expiration of service terms
that he had l>ut one hundred soldiers left and was obliged to employ
the Cherokee to garrison Fort Armstrong, on the upper Coosa, ami to
protect his provision depot.' With theopeningof the new year, L814,
having received reinforcements from Tennessee, together with about
two hundred friendly Creeks and sixty-five more Cherokee, he left his
camp on the Coosa and advanced against the towns on the Tallapoosa.
Learning, on arriving near the river, that he was within a few miles
of the main body of the enemy, he halted for a reconnoissance and
camped in order of Wattle on Fmukfaw creek, on the northern hank of
the Tallaj sa, only a short distance from the famous Horseshoe bend.
Here, on the morning of June 24, 1814, he was suddenly attacked by
the enemy with such fury that, although the troops charged with the
bayonet, the Creeks returned again to the fight and were at last broken
only by the help of the friendly Indians, who came upon them from
the rear. As it was, .lack-on was so badly crippled that he retreated
to Fort Strother on the Coosa, carrying his wounded, among them ( ren-
eral Coffee, on horse-hide litters. The Creeks pursued and attacked
him again as he was crossing Enotochopco creek on January 24, hut
after a severe fight were driven back with discharges of grapeshot from
a six-pounder at close range. The army then continued its retreat to
Fort Strother. The American loss in these two battles was about one
hundred killed and wounded. The loss of the ( 'reeks was much greater,
hut they had compelled a superior force, armed with bayonet and
artillery, to retreat, and without the aid of the friendly Indians it is
doubtful if Jackson could have saved his army from demoralization.
The Creeks themselves claimed a victory and boasted afterward
that they had " whipped Jackson and run him to the Coosa fiver."
Indian! pp 191, 898, 1880; Pickett, Alabama, pi 9 92 96 reprint of 189C
'Ibid., p. 579; Lossfng Field Book of the War of 1812, p. 77:;
hookey] BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND — 1814 V)3
Pickett states, on what seems good authority, that the Creeks engaged
did not number more than five hundred warriors. Jackson had prob-
ably at least one thousand two hundred men. including Indians. 1
While these events were transpiring in the north, General Floyd
again advanced from Georgia with a force of about one thousand three
hundred Americans and four hundred friendly Indians, but was sur-
prised on Caleebee creek, near the present Tuskegee, Alabama, on the
morning of January 27, 1814, and compelled to retreat, leaving the
enemy in possession of the field. 2
We come now to the final event of the Creek war, the terrible battle
of the Horseshoe bend. Having received large reenforcements from
Tennessee, Jackson left a garrison at Fort Strother, and. about the
middle of March, descended the Coosa river to the mouth of Cedar
creek, southeast from the present Columbiana, where he built Fori
Williams. Leaving his stores here with a garrison to protect them,
he began his march for the Horseshoe bend of the Tallapoosa, where
the hostiles were reported to have collected in great force. At this
place, known to the Creeks as Tohopki or Tohopeka, the Tallapoosa
made a bend so as to inclose some eighty or a hundred acres in a nar-
row peninsula opening to the north. On the lower side was an island
in the river, and about a mile below was Emukfaw creek, entering from
the north, where Jackson had been driven back two months before
Both locations were in the present Tallapoosa county. Alabama, within
two miles of the present post village of Tohopeka. Across the neck of
the peninsula the Creeks had built a strong breastwork of logs, behind
which were their houses, and behind these were a number of canoes
moored to the bank for use if retreat became necessary. The fort was
defended by a thousand warriors, with whom were also about three
hundred women and children. Jackson's force numbered about two
thousand men, including, according to his own statement, five hundred
Cherokee. He had also two small cannon. The account of the battle,
or rather massacre, which occurred on the morning of .March •_'". 1814,
is best condensed from the official reports of the principal commanders.
Having arrived in the neighborhood of the fort, Jackson disposed
his men for the attack by detailing General Coffee with the mounted
men and nearly the whole of the Indian force to cross the river at a
foi-d about three miles below and surround the bend in such manner
that none could escape in that direction. He himself, with the restof
his force, advanced to the front of the breastwork and planted hiscan-
• Fay and Davison, Sketches of the War. pp. 247-250, 1815; Pickett. Alabama, pp. 579-584, reprint of
1896; Drake, Indians, pp. 398-400, 1S80. Piekett says Jackson had "767 men. with mi friendly Indians " ;
Drake says he started with 930 men and was joined at Talladega by 200 friendly Indians; Jackson
himself, as quoted in Fay and Davison, says that In- started with 930 men, excluding Indians, and
was joined at Talladega " by between 200 and 300 friendly Indians;" ' > being Cherokee the resl
Creeks. The inference is that he already had a number of Indians with him at the start— probablj
the Cherokee who had been doing garrison duty.
2 Pickett, op. cit., pp. 584-586.
9 1 MYTH8 OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ank.19
iiuii upon a slight rise within eighty yards of the fortification, tie then
directed a heavy cannonade upon the center of the breastwork, while
the rifles mid muskets kept up a galling fire upon the defenders when-
ever they showed themselves behind the logs. The breastwork was
very strongly and compactly built, from five to eight feel high, with a
double row of portholes, and so planned that no enemy could approach
without being exposed to a crossfire from those on the inside. After
about two hours of cannonading and rifle fire to no great purpose,
"Captain Russell's company of spies and a party of the Cherokee
tone, headed by their gallant chieftain, Colonel Richard Brown, and
conducted by the brave Colonel Morgan, crossed over to the peninsula
in canoes and set fire to a few of their buildings there situated. They
then advanced with great gallantry toward the breastwork and com-
menced firing upon the enemy, who lay behind it. Finding that this
force, notwithstanding the determination they displayed, was wholly
insufficient to dislodge the enemy, and that General Coffee had secured
the opposite hanks of the river. I now determined on taking possession
of their works by storm.'" '
Coffee's official report to his commanding officer states that he had
taken seven hundred mounted troops and about six hundred Indians,
of whom five hundred were Cherokee and the rest friendly Creeks,
and had come in behind, having- directed the Indians to take position
secretly along the bank of the river to prevent the enemy crossing, as
already noted. This was done, but with fighting going on so near at
hand the Indians could not remain quiet. Continuing, Coffee says:
The firing of your cannon and small arms in a short time l>ecame general and
heavy, which animated our Indians, and seeing about one hundred of the warriors
and all the squaws and children of the enemy running about among the huts of the
village, which was open to our view, they could no longer remain silent spectators.
While some kept up a fire across the river to prevent the enemy's approach to the
hank, others plunged into the water ami swam the river for canoes thai lay at the
other shore in considerable numbers and brought them over, in which crafts a num-
ber of them embarked and landed on the bend with the enemy. Colonel Gideon
Morgan, who < unanded the Cherokees, Captain Kerr, and Captain William Rus-
sell, with a part of his company of spies, were a lg the first that crossed the river.
They advanced into the village and very soon drove the enemy from the huts up
the river bank to the fortified works from which they were fighting you. They
pursued and continued to annoy during your whole action. This movement of my
Indian forces left the river bank unguarded and made it necessary that I should send
a part of my line to take possession of the river bank. 9
According to the official report of Colonel Morgan, who commanded
the Cherokee and who was himself Severely wounded, the Cherokee
took the places assigned them along the bank in such regular order
■Jackson's report !<• Governor Blount, March 81, 1814, in Fay and Pavison, Sketches of the War,
pp. 253,234, 181 •
'General Coffee's report to General Jackson, April 1,1814, Ibid., i>. 267.
MoosEv] BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND — 1814 95
that no part was left unoccupied, and the few fugitives who attempted
to escape from the fort by water "fell an easy prey to their ven-
geance." Finally, seeing that the cannonade had no mure effect upon
the breastwork than to bore holes in the logs, some of the Cherokee
plunged into the river, and swimming over to the town brought back
a number of canoes. A part crossed in these, under cover of the guns
of their companions, and sheltered themselves under the bank while
the canoes were sent hack for reenforcements. In this way they all
crossed over and then advanced up the bank, where at once they were
warmly assailed from every side except the rear, which they kept open
only by hard righting. 1
The Creeks had been righting the Americans in their front at such
close quarters that their bullets flattened upon the bayonets thrust
through the portholes. This attack from the rear by five hundred
Cherokee diverted their attention and gave opportunity to the Tennes-
seeans, Sam Houston among them, cheering them on. to swarm over
the breastwork. With death from the bullet, the bayonet and the
hatchet all around them, and the smoke of their blazing homes in their
eyes, not a warrior begged for his life. When more than half their
number lay dead upon the ground, the rest turned and plunged into
the river, only to rind the banks on the opposite side lined with enemies
and escape cut off in every direction. Says General Coffee:
Attempts to cross the river at all points of the bend were made by the enemy, but
nnt .me ever escaped. Very few ever reached the bank and that lew was killed the
instant they landed. From the report of my officers, as well as from my own obser-
vation, I feel warranted in saying that from two hundred and fifty to three hundred
of the enemy was buried under water and was not numbered with tin- dead that
were found.
Some swam for the island below the bend, but here too a detach-
ment had been posted and " not one ever landed. They were sunk by
Lieutenant Bean's command ere they reached the bank." :
Quoting again from Jackson —
The enemy, although many of them fought to the last with that kind of bravery
which desperation inspires, were at last entirely routed and cut to pieces. The battle
may be said to have continued with severity for about five hours, but the firing and
slaughter continued until it was suspended by the darkness of night. The next
morning it was resumed and sixteen of the enemy slain who had concealed them-
selves under the banks. 3
It was supposed that the Creeks had about a thousand warriors,
besides their women and children. The men sent out to count the
dead found five hundred and fifty-seven warriors lying dead within the
inclosure, and Coffee estimates that from two hundred and fifty to
•Colonel Morgan's report to Governor Blount, in Fay and Davison, Sketches of tin- War, pp. 258,
259 1815.
2 Coflee's report to Jackson, ibid., pp. 257,258.
3 Jackson's report to Governor Blount, ibid., pp. 255,256.
96 MYTH- 01 THE CHEROKEE ure.19
three hundred were shot in the water. How many more there may
have been can not be known, bul Jackson himself states that not more
than twenty could have escaped. There is no mention of any wounded.
About three hundred prisoners were taken, of whom only three were
men. The defenders of the Horseshoe had been exterminated.'
( )n the other side the loss vras 26 Americans killed and I07 wounded,
18 Cherokee killed and 36 wounded. 5 friendly Creeks killed and 11
wounded. It will be noted that the Loss of the Cherokee was out of
all proportion to their numbers, their fighting having been hand to
hand work without protecting cover. In view of the fact that Jack-
son had only a few weeks before been compelled to retreat before this
same enemy, and that two hours of artillery and rifle fire had produced
no result until the, Cherokee turned the rear of the enemy by their
daring passage of the river, there is considerable truth in the boast of
the Cherokee that they saved the day for Jackson at Horseshoe bend.
In the number of men actually engaged and the immense proportion
killed, this ranks as the greatest Indian battle in the history of the
United States, with the possible exception of the battle of Mauvila,
fought by the same Indians in De Soto's time. The result was decisive.
Two weeks later Weatherford came in and surrendered, and the Creek
war was at an end.
As is usual where Indians have acted as auxiliaries of white troops, it
is difficult to get an accurate statement of the number of Cherokee
engaged in this war or to apportion the credit among the various
leaders. Coffee's official report states that five hundred Cherokee
were engaged in the last great battle, and from incidental hints it
seems probable that others were employed elsewhere, on garrison duty
or otherwise, at the same time. McKenney and Hall state that Ridge
recruited eight hundred warriors for Jackson, 8 and this may be near
the truth, as the tribe had then at least six times as many fighting men.
On account of the general looseness of Indian organization we com
monly find the credit claimed for whichever chief may be best known
to the chronicler. Thus. McKenney and Hall make Major Ridge the
hero of the war. especially of the Horseshoe fight, although he is not
mentioned in the official reports. Jackson speaks particularly of the
Cherokee in that battle as being "headed by their gallant chieftain,
Colonel Richard Brown, and conducted by the brave Colonel Mor-
gan." Coffee says that Colonel Gideon Morgan "commanded the
Cherokees," and it is Morgan who makes the official report of their
part in the battle. In a Washingtoi wspaper notice of the treaty
> Jackson a report and Colone] Morgan's report, in Fay and Davison, Sketches ol the War, pp. 255,
250,259, 1815. Pickett makes tin- lossoi the white troops 82 killed and 99 wounded, rhi Houston
reference Is (rom Lossing. The battle Is described also bj Pickett, Alabama, pp.588 691, reprint
ol 1896; Drake, in. Man-, pp. 891, 100, 1880; McKenney an.! Hall. Indian l ribes, n. pp.98,99, 1858.
'McKenney and Hull, op, .'it., p. 98.
MooNKYj TREATIES OF WASHINGTON 1816 97
delegation of 1816 the six signers arc mentioned as Colonel [John]
Lowrey, Major [John] Walker, Major Ridge, Captain [Richard] Taylor,
Adjutant [John] Ross, and Kunnesee (Tsi'yu-gunsi'm, Cheucunsene) and
are described as men of cultivation, nearly all of whom had served as
officers of the Cherokee forces w ith Jackson and distinguished themselves
as well by their bravery as by their attachment to the United States. 1
Among the East Cherokee in Carolina the only name still remembered
is that of their old chief. Junaluska (Tsunu'Iahufl'ski), who said after-
ward: "If 1 had known that Jackson would drive us from our homes
u/' I would have killed him that day at the Horseshoe."
The Cherokee returned to their homes to rind them despoiled and
ravaged in their absence by disorderly white troops. Two years after-
ward, by treaty al Washington, the Government agreed to reimburse
them for the damage. Interested parties denied that they had suffered
any damage or rendered any services, to which their agent indignantly
replied: "It may he answered that thousands witnessed both; that in
nearly all the battles with the Creeks the Cherokees rendered the most
efficient service, and at the expense of the lives of many tine men.
whose wives and children and brothers and sisters are mourning their
fall." 2
In the spring of 1816 a delegation of seven principal men. accom-
panied by Agent Meigs, visited Washington, and the result was the
negotiation of two treaties at that place on the Name date. March 22,
1816. By the first of these the Cherokee ceded for five thousand dollars
their last remaining territory in South Carolina, a small strip in the
extreme northwestern corner, adjoining Chattooga river. By the sec-
ond treaty a boundary was established between the lands claimed by the
Cherokee and Creeks in northern Alabama. This action was made
necessary in order to determine the boundaries of the great tract
which the Creeks had been compelled to surrender in punishment for
their late uprising. The li no was run from a point on Little Bear
creek in northwestern Alabama direct to the Ten islands of the
Coosa at old Fort Strother, southeast of the present Asheville. Gen-
era] Jackson protested strongly against this line, on the ground that
all the territory south of Tennessee river and west of the Coosa
belonged to the Creeks and was a part of their cession. The Chicka-
saw also protested against considering this tract as Cherokee terri-
tory. The treaty also granted free and unrestricted road privileges
throughout the Cherokee country, this concession being the result of
years of persistent effort on the part of the Government: and an
appropriation of twenty-five thousand five hundred dollars was made
1 Drake, Indians, p. 401, 1880.
- Indian Treaties, p. 187, 1837; Meigs' letter to Secretary of War, August 19, 1816, in American State
Papers: Indian Affairs, n, pp. 113, 114, 1X34.
It) ETH — 01— 7
98 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
for damages sustained i>\ the Cherokee from the depredations of the
troops passing through their country during the Creek war. 1
At the lasl treaty the Cherokee had resisted r\<-\-\ efforl to induce
them i" cede more land on either side of the Tennessee, the Govern-
ment being especially desirous t" extinguish their claim north of thai
river within the- limit - of the state of Tennessee. Failing in this.
pressure was at once begun t<> bring about a cession in Alabama, with
the result thai on September 11 of the same year a treat] was con-
cluded at the Chickasaw council-house, and afterward ratified in gen-
eral council at Turkeytown on the Coosa, by which the Cherokee
ceded all their claims in thai state south of Tennessee river and wesl
of an irregular line running from Chickasaw island in thai stream,
below the entrance of Flint river, to the junction of Wills creek with
the Coosa, al the presenl Gadsden. For this cession, embracing an
area of nearlj three thousand five hundred square miles, they were to
receive sixty thousand dollars in ten annual payments, together with
five thousand dollars t'<>r the improvements abandoned.
We turn aside now for a time from the direel narrative to note the
developmenl of events which culminated in the forced expatriation of
the Cherokee from their ancestral homes and their removal to the far
western wilderness.
With a few notable exceptions the relations between the French
and Spanish colonists and the native tribes, after the first occupation
of the country, had been friendly and agreeable. Qnder the rule of
France or Spain there was never any Indian boundary. Pioneer and
Indian built their cabins and tilled their fields side by side, ranged
the w Is toe-ether, knelt before the >ame altar and frequently inter-
married on terms of equality, so far as race was concerned. The
7-esult is seen to-day in the mixed-blood communities of Canada, and
in Mexico, where a nation lias been built upon an Indian foundation.
Within the area of English colonization it was otherwise. From the
lir-t settlement to the recent inauguration of the allotment system it
never occurred to the man of Teutonic blood that he could have for a
neighbor anyone not of his own stock and color. While the English
colonists recognized the native proprietorship so far as to make trea-
ties with tile Indians, it was chiefly for the purpose of fixing limits
beyond which the Indian should never come after he had ;e parted
with his title for a consideration of goods and trinkets. In an early
Virginia treaty it was even stipulated that friendly Indians crossing
the line should sutler death. The Indian was regarded as an incum-
brance to be cleared oil', like the trees and tin- wolves, before white
men could live in the country. Intermarriages were practically
1 Indian Treaties, pp. 186 187, 1837; Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp. 197 209, 1888
'Indian Treaties, pp 199,200, 1887; Royce, op. cit., pp. 209-211.
mooney] EARLY WESTWARD EMIGRATION 99
unknown, and the children of such union were usually compelled by
race antipathy to cast their lot with the savage.
Under such circumstances the tribes viewed the advance of the
English and their successors, the Americans, with keen distrust, and
as early as the close of the French and Indian war we find some of
them removing from the neighborhood of the English settlements io
a safer shelter in the more remote territories still held by Spain, Soon
after the French withdrew from Fort Toulouse, in 1763, a part of the
Alabama, an incorporated tribe of the ('reek confederacy, left their
villages on the Coosa, and crossing the Mississippi, where they halted
for a time on its western bank, settled on the Sabine river under
Spanish protection. 1 They were followed some years later by a part
of the Koasati. of the same confederacy." the two tribe.- subsequently
drifting into Texas, where they now reside. The Hichitee and others
of the Lower Creeks moved down into Spanish Florida, where the
Yamassee exiles from South Carolina had long before preceded them,
the two combining to form the modern Seminole tribe. When the
Revolution brought about a new line of division, the native tribes,
almost without exception, joined sides with England as against the
Americans, with the result that about one-half the Iroquois tied to
Canada, where they still reside upon lands granted by the British gov-
ernment. A short time before' Wayne's victory a part of the Shawano
and Delawares, worn out by nearly twenty years of battle with the
Americans, crossed the Mississippi and settled, by permission of the
Spanish government, upon lands in the vicinity of Cape Girardeau, in
what is now southeastern Missouri, for which they obtained a regular
deed from that government in 1793. 3 Driven out by the Americans
some twenty years later, they removed to Kansas and thence to Indian
territory, where they are now incorporated with their old friends, the
Cherokee.
When the first Cherokee crossed the Mississippi it is impossible to
say, but there was probably never a time in the history of the tribe
when their warriors and hunters were not accustomed to make excur-
sions beyond the great river. According to an old tradition, the
earliest emigration took place soon after the first treaty with Carolina,
when a portion of the tribe, under the leadership of Yunwi-usga'se'ti,
••Dangerous-man," forseeing the inevitable end of yielding to the
demands of tin 3 colonists, refused to have any relations with the white
man, and took up their long march for the unknown West. Commu-
nication was kept up with the home body until after crossing the
Mississippi, when they were lost sight of and forgotten. Long years
'■Claiborne, letter to Jefferson, November 5, 1808, American State Papers, i, p. 755, 1832; Gatschet,
Creek Migration Legend, i, p. 88, 1884.
- Hawkins, 1799. quoted in Gatschet, op. cit., p. 89.
3 See Treaty of St Louis, 1S25, and of Castor hill, 1S52, in Indian Treaties, pp. 388, 539, 1837.
100 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
afterward a rumor came from the west thai they were Mill livingnear
the base of the Rocky mountains.' In 1782 the Cherokee, who bad
fought faithfully on the British side throughout the long Revolution-
ary struggle, applied to the Spanish governor al New Orleans for
permission to settl > the wesl side of the Mississippi, within Spanish
territory. Permission was granted, and it i- probable that some of
them removed to the Arkansas country, although there seems to be no
definite record of the matter.' We learn incidentally, however, that
about this peried the hostile Cherokee, like the Shawano and other
northern tribes, were in the habit of making friendly visits to the
Spanish settlements in that quarter.
According to Reverend Cephas Washburn, the pioneer misssionary
of the western Cherokee, the first permanent Cherokee settlement
beyond the Mississippi was the direct result of the massacre, in L794,
of the Scott party at Muscle shoals, on Tennessee river, by the hostile
warriors of the Chickamauga towns, in the summer. As told by the
missionary, the story differs considerably from that given by IIa\ wood
and other Tennessee historians, narrated in another place. According
to Washburn, the whites were the aggressors, having first made the
Indians drunk and then swindled them out of the annuity money with
which they were just returning from the agency at Tellico. When
the Indians became sober enough to demand the return of their money
the whites attacked and killed two of them, whereupon the others
boarded the boat and killed every white man. They spared the wi n
and children, however, with their negro slaves and all their personal
belongings, and permitted them to continue on their way. the chief
and his party personally escorting them down Tennessee, Ohio, and
Mississippi rivers as far as the mouth of the St. Francis, whence the
emigrants descended in safety to New Orleans, while their captors,
under their chief. The Bowl, went up St. Francis river then a part of
Spanish territory — to await the outcome of the event. As soon as
the news came to the Cherokee Nation tin' chiefs formally repudiated
the action of the Howl party and volunteered to assist in arresting
those i cerned. Bowl and his men were finally exonerated, but had
conceived such bitterness at the conduct of their former friends, and.
moreover, had found the soil so rich and the game so abundant where
the] were, that they refused to return to their tribe and decided to
remain permanently in the West. Others joined them from time to
time, attracted by the hunting prospect, until they were in sufficient
number to obtain recognition from the Government.'
iSee number 107, " Hie Lost Cherokee."
-sri- lettei of Governor Estevan Mir., to Robertson, \pril 20,1783, in Roosevelt, Winning ol the
West, ii. p i". !•"'
iSee pp. 76-77.
i Washburn, Reminiscences, pp.76 79, 1869; -. • also Royce, Cherokee Nation, riiii. Ann. Rep. Bureau
..i I ilili. .!"«>. !•. '-'Ml. isss.
moosey] THE BOWL EMIGRATION 1794 101
While the missionary may be pardoned for making the best show-
ing possible for his friends, his statement contains several evident
errors, and it is probable that Haywood's account is more correct in
the main. As the Cherokee annuity at that time amounted to but
fifteen hundred dollars for the whole tribe, or somewhat less than ten
cents per head, they could hardly have had enough money from that
source to pay such extravagant prices as sixteen dollars apiece for
pocket minors, which it is alleged the boatmen obtained. Moreover,
as the Chickamauga warriors had refused to sign any treaties and were
notoriously hostile, they were not as yet entitled to receive payments.
Haywood's statement that the emigrant party was first attacked while
passing the ( Ihickamauga towns and then pursued to the Muscle shoals
and there massacred is probably near the truth, although it is quite
possible that the whites may have provoked the attack in some such
way as is indicated by the missionary. As Washburn got his account
from one of the women of the party, living long afterward in New
Orleans, it is certain that some at least were spared by the Indians,
and it is probable that, as he states, only the men were killed.
The Bowl emigration may not have been the first, or even the most
important removal to the western country, as the period was one of
Indian unrest. Small bands were constantly crossing the Mississippi
into Spanish territory to avoid the advancing Americans, only to find
themselves again under American jurisdiction when the whole western
country was ceded to the United States in 1803. The persistent land-
hunger of the settler could not be restrained or satisfied, and early in
the same year President Jefferson suggested to Congress the desira-
bility of removing all the tribes to the west of the Mississippi. In
the next year. 1804, an appropriation was made for taking prelimi-
nary steps toward such a result. 1 There were probably but few Chero-
kee on the Arkansas at this time, as they are not mentioned in Sibley's
list of tribes south of that river in 1805.
In the summer of 1808, a Cherokee delegation being about to visit
Washington, their agent. Colonel Meigs, was instructed by the Secre-
tary of War to use every effort to obtain their consent to an exchange
of their lands for a tract beyond the Mississippi. By this time the
government's civilizing policy, as carried out in the annual distribution
of farming tools, spinning wheels, and looms, had wrought a consider-
able difference of habit and sentiment between the northern and
southern Cherokee. Those on Little Tennessee and Hiwassee were
generally farmers and stock raisers, producing also a limited quantity
of cotton, which the women wove into cloth. Those farther down in
Georgia and Alabama, the old hostile element, still preferred the
hunting life and rejected all effort at innovation, although the game
had now become so scarce that it was evident a change must soon
'Royee, Cherokee Nation, Filth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, op. 202, 203, lsss.
lli-_' MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [sth.an.n.19
come. Jealousies bad arisen in consequence, and the delegates repre-
senting the progressive element now proposed to the government that
a line be run through the nation I" separate the two parties, allowing
t Ik ■-.• on the north to divide their lands in severalty and become citi-
zens of the United States, while those on the south might continue to
be bunters as long as the game should last. Taking advantage of this
condition of a Hairs, the government authorities instructed the agent to
submit t<> the conservatn es a proposition for a cession of their share of
the tribal territory in return for a tract west of the Mississippi of suf-
ficient area to enable them to continue the hunting life. The plan was
approved by President Jefferson, and a sum was appropriated to pay
the expenses of a delegation to visit and inspect the lands on Arkansas
and White rivers, with a view to removal. The visit was made in the
summerof 1809, and the delegates brought back such favorable report
that a large number of ( Iherokee signified their intention to remoi e at
once. A- no funds were then available for their removal, the matter
was held in abeyance for several years, during which period families
and individuals removed to the western country at their own expense
until, before the year 1817, they numbered in all two or three
thousand souls. 1 They became known as the Arkansas, or Western.
Cherokee.
The emigrants soon became involved in difficulties with the native
tribes, the Osage claiming all the lands north of Arkansas river, while
the Quapaw claimed those on the south. Upon complaining to the
government the emigrant Cherokee were told that they had originally
been permitted to remove only on condition of a cession of a portion
of their eastern territory, and that nothing could he done to protect
them in their new western home until such cession had been carried
out. The body of the Cherokee Nation, however, was strongly opposed
to any such sale and proposed that the emigrants should he compelled
to return. After protracted negotiation a treaty was concluded at
the Cherokee agency (now Calhoun. Tennessee) on July 8, 1817, by
which the Cherokee Nation ceded two considerable tracts — the first in
Georgia, lying east of the Chattahoochee, and the other in Tennessee.
between Waldens ridge ami the Little Sequatchee — as an equivalent
for a tract to he assigned to those who had already removed, or
intended to remove, to Arkansas. Two smaller tracts on the north
bank of the Tennessee, in the neighborhood of the Muscle shoals.
were also ceded. In return for these cessions the emigrant Cherokee
were to receive a tract within the present limits of the state of Arkan-
■ Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Aim. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 202-204, 1888; see also Indian
Treaties, pp. 209-215, 1887. The preamble to the treaty of 1817 snys thut the delegation of 1808 had
de treda division of the tribal territory in order that the people of the Upper (northern townt might
"begin the establishment of fixed laws and « regular government," while those of tin- Lower
(southern) towns desired t.. remove t" the West Nothing i- said of severalty allotments >>r
citizenship.
mooney] TREATY OF CHEROKEE AGENCY — 1817 103
sas, bounded on the north and south by White river and Arkansas
river, respectively, on the east l>y a line running between those
.streams approximately from the present Ratesville to Lewisburg. and
on the west by a line to lie determined later. As afterward estab-
lished, this western line ran from the junction of the Little North
Fork with White river to just beyond the point where the present
western Arkansas boundary strikes Arkansas river. Provision was
made for taking the census of the whole Cherokee nation east and
west in order to apportion annuities and other payments properly in
the future, and the two hands were still to he considered as forming
one people. The United States agreed to pay for any substantial
improvements abandoned by those removing from the ceded lands,
and each emigrant warrior who left no such valuable property behind
was to be given as full compensation for his abandoned field and cabin
a rifle and ammunition, a blanket, and a kettle or a beaver trap. The
government further agreed to furnish boats and provisions for the
journey. Provision was also made that individuals residing upon
the ceded lands might retain allotments and become citizens, if they
so elected, the amount of the allotment to be deducted from the total
cession.
The commissioners for the treaty w*ere General Andrew Jackson,
General David Meriwether, and Governor Joseph McMinn of Ten-
nessee. On behalf of the Cherokee it was signed by thirty-one princi-
pal men of the eastern Nation and fifteen of the western band, who
signed by proxy. 1
The majority of the Cherokee were bitterly opposed to any cession
or removal project, and before the treaty had been concluded a
memorial signed by sixty-seven chiefs and headmen of the nation was
.presented to the commissioners, which stated that the delegates who
had first broached the subject in Washington some years before had
acted without any authority from the nation. They declared that the
great body of the Cherokee desired to remain in the land of their
birth, where they were rapidly advancing in civilization, instead of
being compelled to revert to their original savage conditions and sur-
roundings. They therefore prayed that the matter might not lie
pressed further, but that they might be allowed to remain in peaceable
possession of the land of their fathers. No attention was paid to the
memorial, and the treaty was carried through and ratified. Without
waiting for the ratification, the authorities at once took steps for the
removal of those who desired to go to the West. Boats were provided
at points between Little Tennessee and Sequatchee rivers, and the
emigrants were collected under the direction of Governor McMinn.
Within the next year a large number had emigrated, and before the
'Indian Treaties, pp. 209-215, 1837; Royee, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp. 212-217, 1888; see also maps in Royce.
104 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
end of 1819 the number of emigrants was said to have increased to six
thousand. "Flic chiefs of the nation, however, claimed that the esti-
mate was greatly in excess of the truth. 1
"There can be no question that a very large portion, and probably
a majority, of the Cherokee nation residing east of the Mississippi had
been and still continued bitterly opposed to the terms of the treaty of
18 L 7. They viewed with jealous and aching hearts all attempts to
drive them from the homes of their ancestors, for they could not but
consider the constant and urgent importunities of the federal authori-
ties in the light of an imperative demand for the cession of more
territory. They felt that they were, as a nation, being slowly but
surely compressed within the contracting coils of the giant anaconda
of civilization; yet they held to the vain hope that a spirit of justice
and mercy would be born of their helpless condition which would
anally prevail in their favor. Their traditions furnished them no
guide by which to judge of the results certain to follow such a conflict
as that in which they were engaged. This difference of sentiment in
the nation upon a subject so vital to their welfare was productive of
much bitterness and violent animosities. Those who had favored the
emigration scheme and had been induced, either through personal
preference or by the subsidizing influences of the government agents,
to favor the conclusion of the treaty, became the object of scorn and
hatred to the remainder of the nation. They were made the subjects
of a persecution so relentless, while they remained in the eastern
country, that it was never forgotten, and when, in the natural course
of events, the remainder of the nation was forced to remove to the
Arkansas country and join the earlier emigrants, the old hatreds and
dissensions broke out afresh, and to this day they find lodgment in
some degree in the breasts of their descendants." 2
Two months after the signing of the treaty of July 8, 1817, and
three months before its ratification, a council of the nation sent a dele-
gation to Washington to recount in detail the improper methods and
influences which had been used to consummate it. and to ask that it be
set aside and another agreement substituted. The mission was without
result. 3
In 1817 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
established its first station among the Cherokee at Brainerd, in Ten-
nessee, on the west side of Chickamauga creek, two miles from the
Georgia line. The mission took its name from a distinguished pioneer
worker among the northern tribes (37). The government aided in the
erection of the buildings, which included a schoolhouse, gristmill,
and workshops, in which, besides the ordinary branches, the boys were
taught simple mechanic arts while the girls learned the use of the
' Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 217-218, 1888.
•Ibid., pp. 218-219. "Ibid., p. 219.
« mn PRESSURE FOB REMOVAL 105
needle and the spinningwheel. There was also a large work farm.
The mission prospered and others were established at Willstown,
Hightower, and elsewhere by the same board, in which two hundred
pupils were receiving instruction in L820. ] Among the earliest and
most noted workersat the Brainerd mission were Reverend I). S. But
trick and Reverend S. A. Worcester {'■'■*<). the latter especially having
done much for the mental elevation of the Cherokee, and more than once
having suffered imprisonment for his zeal in defending their cause.
The missions flourished until broken up by the state of Georgia at the
beginning of the Removal troubles, and they were afterwards renewed
in the western country. Mission ridge preserves the memory of the
Brainerd establishment.
Early in 1818 a delegation of emigrant Cherokee visited Washing-
ton for the purpose of securing a more satisfactory determination of
the boundaries of their new lands on the Arkansas. .Measures were
soon afterward taken for that purpose. They also asked recognition in
the future as a separate and distinct tribe, but nothing was done in the
matter. In order to remove, if possible, the hostile feeling between
the emigrants and the native Osage, who regarded the former as
intruders. Governor William Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs
for Missouri, arranged a conference of the chiefs of the two tribes at
St. Louis in October of that year, at which, after protracted effort, he
succeeded in establishing friendly relations between them. Efforts
were made about the same time, both by the emigrant Cherokee and
by the government, to persuade the Shawano and Delawares then
residing in Missouri, and the Oneida in New York, to join the western
Cherokee, but nothing- cameof the negotiations. 2 In 1825 a delegation
of western Cherokee visited the Shawano in < )hio for the same purpose,
but without success. Their object in thus inviting friendly Indians to
join them was to strengthen themselves against the Osage and other
native tribes.
In the meantime the government, through Governor McMinn, was
bringing- strong pressure to bear upon the eastern Cherokee to compel
their removal to the West. At a council convened by him in November,
L818, the governor represented to the chiefs that it was now no longer
possible to protect them from the encroachments of the surrounding
white population: that, however the government might wish to help
them, their lands would be taken, their stock stolen, their women cor-
rupted, and their men made drunkards unless they removed to the
western paradise. He ended by proposing to pay them one hundred
thousand dollars for their whole territory, with the expense of removal,
if they would go at once. Upon their prompt and indignant refusal
he offered to double the amount, but with as little success.
•Morse, Geography, i, p.577, 1819; and p. 185, 1822.
-Rc.yiT, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau ol Ethnology, pp. 221-222, 18S8,
106 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
Every point of the negotiation having failed, another course was
adopted, and a delegation was selected to visit Washington under the
conduct of Agent Meigs. Here the effort was renewed until, wearied
and discouraged at the persistent importunity, the chiefs consented
to a large cession, which was represented as necessary in order to com-
pensate in area for the tract assigned to the emigrant Cherokee in
Arkansas in accordance with the previous treaty. This estimate was
based on the tigures given by Governor McMinn, who reported 5,291
Cherokee enrolled as emigrants, while the eastern Cherokee claimed
that not more than 3,500 had removed and that those remaining num-
bered 12.544, or more than three-fourths of the whole nation. The
governor, however, chose to consider one-half of the nation as in favor
of removal and one-third as having already removed. 1
The treaty, concluded at Washington on February 27, 1819, recites
that the greater part of the Cherokee nation, having expressed an
earnest desire to remain in the East, and being anxious to begin the
necessary measures for the civilization and preservation of their nation,
and to settle the differences arising out of the treaty of 1817, have
offered to cede to the United States a tract of country "at least as
extensive" as that to which the Government is entitled under the
late treaty. The cession embraces (1) a tract in Alabama and Ten-
nessee, between Tennessee and Flint rivers; (2) a tract in Tennessee,
between Tennessee river and Waldens ridge; (3) a large irregular tract
in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, embracing in Tennessee
nearly r all the remaining Cherokee lands north of Hiwassee river, and
in North Carolina and Georgia nearly everything remaining to them
east of the Nantahala mountains and the upper western branch of the
Chattahoochee; (4) six small pieces reserved by previous treaties. The
entire cession aggregated nearly six thousand square miles, or more
than one-fourth of all then held by the nation. Individual reservations
of one mile square each within the ceded area were allowed to a num-
ber of families which decided to remain among the whites and become
citizens rather than abandon their homes. Payment was to be made
for all substantial improvements abandoned, one-third of all tribal
annuities were hereafter to be paid to the western hand, and the treaty
was declared to be a final adjustment of all claims and differences aris-
ing from the treaty of 1817. 2
Civilization had now progressed so far among the Cherokee that in
the fall of 1820 they adopted a regular republican form of govern-
ment modeled after that of the United States. Under this arrangement
the nation was divided into eight districts, each of which was entitled
1 Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 222-228, 1888.
^Indian Treaties, pp. 265-269, 1S37; Royce, op. cit., pp. 219-221 and table, p. 378.
mooney] CHEEOKEE GOVEENMENX — Missions 107
to send lour representatives to the Cherokee national legislature,
which met at Newtown, or New Echota, the capital, at the junction
of Conasauga and Coosawatee rivers, a few miles above the present
Calhoun, Georgia. The legislature consisted of an upper and a
lower house, designated, respectively (in the Cherokee language), the
national committee and national council, the members being elected
for limited terms by the voters of each district. The principal officer
was styled president of the national council; the distinguished John
Ross was the first to hold this office. There was also a clerk of the
committee and two principal members to express the will of the coun-
cil or lower house. For each district there were appointed a council
house for meetings twice a year, a judge, and a marshal. Companies
of "light horse" were organized to assist in the execution of the laws,
with a "ranger" for each district to look after stray stock. Each head
of a family and each single man under the age of sixty was subject to
a poll tax. Laws were passed for the collection of taxes and debts,
for repairs on loads, for licenses to white persons engaged in farming
or other business in the nation, for the support of schools, for the
regulation of the liquor traffic and the conduct of negro slaves, to pun-
ish horse stealing and theft, to compel all marriages between white
men and Indian women to be according to regular legal or church
form, and to discourage polygamy. By special decree the right of
blood revenge or capital punishment was taken from the seven clans
and \ested in the constituted authorities of the nation. It was made
treason, punishable with death, for any individual to negotiate the sale
of lands to the whites without the consent of the national council (39).
White men were not allowed to vote or to hold office in the nation. 1
The system compared favorably with that of the Federal government
or of any state government then existing.
At this time there were five principal missions, besides one or two
small branch establishments in the nation, viz: Spring Place, the oili-
est, founded by tin 1 Moravians at Spring place, Georgia, in 1801;
Oothcaloga, Georgia, founded by the same denomination in 1S21 on
the creek of that name, near the present Calhoun; Brainerd, Tennes-
see, founded by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions in L817; "Valley-towns." North Carolina, founded by the
Baptists in 1820, on the site of the old Natchez town on the north side
of Hiwassee river, just above Peachtree creek; Coosawatee, Georgia
("Tensawattee," by error in the State Papers), founded also by the
Baptists in fs2L. near the mouth of the river of that name. All were
in flourishing condition, the Brainerd establishment especially, with
nearly one hundred pupils, being obliged to turn away applicants for
1 Laws of theCherol Nation several documents), 1820, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, it,
pp. 279-283, 1834; letter quoted by McKei y, 1825, ibid., pp. 651, 652; Drake, In. linn-, pp. 137, 138 i
108 MYTHS OF THE CHEBOKEE [eth.ann.19
lack of accommodation. The superintendent reported that the children
were apt to learn, willing to labor, and readily submissive to discipline,
adding- that the Cherokee were fast advancing toward civilized life and
generally manifested an ardent desire for instruction. The Valley-
towns mission, established at the instance of Currab.ee Dick, a promi-
nent local mixed-blood chief, was in charge of the Reverend Evan
Jones, known as the translator of the New Testament into the Cherokee
language, his assistant being James D. Watford, a mixed-blood pupil,
who compiled a spelling book in the same language. Reverend S. A.
Worcester, a prolific translator and the compiler of the Cherokee
almanac and other works, was stationed at Brainerd, removing thence
to New Echota and afterward to the Cherokee Nation in the West. 1
Since 1817 the American Board had also supported at Cornwall, Con-
necticut, an Indian school at which a number of young Cherokee were
being educated, among them being Elias Boudinot, afterward the
editor of the Cherokee Phcenix.
About this time occurred an event which at once placed the Cherokee
in the front rank among native tribes and was destined to have profound
influence on their whole future history, viz., the invention of the
alphabet.
The inventor, aptly called the Cadmus of his race, was a mixed-
blood known among his own people as Sikwa'yi (Sequoya) and
among the whites as George Gist, or less correctly Guest or Guess.
As is usually the case in Indian biography much uncertainty exists in
regard to his parentage and early life. Authorities generally agree
that his father was a white man, who drifted into the Cherokee Nation
some years before the Revolution and formed a temporary alliance
with a Cherokee girl of mixed blood, who thus became the mother of
the future teacher. A writer in the Cherokee Phnni.r, in lsi's. says
that only his paternal grandfather was a white man." McKenney and
Hall say that his father was a white man named Gist. 3 Phillips
asserts that his father was George Gist, an unlicensed German trader
from Georgia, who came into the Cherokee Nation in 1708. 4 By a
Kentucky family it is claimed that Sequoya's father was Nathaniel Gist,
son of the scout who accompanied Washington on his memorable
excursion to the Ohio. As the story goes, Nathaniel Gist was cap-
tured by the Cherokee at Braddock's defeat (1755) and remained a
prisoner with them for six years, during which time he became the
father of Sequoya. On his return to civilization he married a white
woman in Virginia, by whom he had other children, and afterward
1 List of missions and reports of missionaries, etc., American State Papers: Indian Affairs, n, pp.
277-279, 159, 1834; personal information from James D. Warlord concerning Valley-towns mission.
For notices of Worcester, Jones, and Watford, see Pilling, Bibliography of the Iroqnoian Languages,
1888. "
'-'<;. < '., in Cherokee Phoenix; reprinted in Christian Advocate and Journal, New York, September 26,
1828.
;i McKenney and Hall. Indian Tribes. I, p. 35, et passim, 1858.
* Phillips, Sequoyah, in Harper's Magazine, pp. 542-548, September, 1870.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IV
SEQUOYA SIKWAYi
l-'r McKenney and Hill copi uf Hi ginal [iiiimiiiK of IS2S)
mooney] 8EQUOYA AM> III- ALPHABET 109
removed to Kentucky, where Sequoya, then a Baptist preacher, fre~
(| in- nt ly visit ed hin i and was always recognized by the family as his son. 1
Aside from the fact thai the Cherokee acted as allies of the English
during the war in whim Braddock's defeat occurred, and that Sequoya,
so far from being a preacher, was not even a Christian, the story con-
tains other elements of improbability and appears to he one of those
genealogical myths built upon a chance similarity of name. On the
other hand, it is certain that Sequoya was horn before the dale that
Phillips allows. On his mother's side he was of good family in the
tribe, liis uncle being a chief in Echota. 2 According to personal infor-
mation of dames Watford, who knew him well, being his second cousin,
Sequoya was probably horn about the year L760, and lived as a boy
with his mother at Tuskegee town in Tennessee, just outside of old
Fort Loudon. It is quite possible that his white father may have been
a soldier of the garrison, one of those lovers for whom the Cherokee
women risked their lives during the siege. 3 What became of the
father is not known, but the mother lived alone with her son.
The only incident of his boyhood that has come down to us is his
presence at Echota during the visit of the Iroquois peace delegation,
about the year 17Ty.' His early years were spent amid the stormy
alarms of the Revolution, and as he grew to manhood he devel-
oped a considerable mechanical ingenuity, especially in .silver work-
ing. Like most of his tribe he was also a hunter and fur trader.
Having nearly reached middle age before the first mission was estab-
lished in the Nation, he never attended school and in all his life never
learned to speak, read, or write the English language. Neither did
he ever abandon his native religion, although from frequent visits to
the .Moravian mission he became imbued with a friendly feeling
toward the new civilization. Of an essentially contemplative disposi-
tion, he was led by a chance conversation in 1809 to reflect upon the
ability of the white men to communicate thought by means of writing,
with the result that he set about devising a similar system for his <>w n
people. By a hunting accident, which rendered him a cripple for life,
lie was fortunately afforded more leisure for study. The presence of
his name. George Guess, appended to a treaty of 1816, indicates that
he «;i- already of some prominence in the Nation, even before the per-
fection of his great invention. After years of patient and unremitting
labor in the face of ridicule, discouragement, and repeated failure, he
finally evolved the Cherokee syllabary and in 1821 submitted it to a
public test by the leading men of the Nation. By this time, in con-
sequence of repeated cessions, the Cherokee had been dispossessed of
the country about Echota, and Sequoya was now living at Willstown,
■ Manuscript letters by John Mason Brown, January 17. 18, 22, and Februarj I. 1889, In archives oi
tli- Bureau of American Ethnology
SMcKenney and Hall. Lndian Tribes, i. p. 15, 1858.
*See page 43. *See nunibrr s'.i. "Thu lru<iiu>is wars."
110 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
on an upper branch of Coosa river, in Alabama. The syllabary was
soon recognized as an invaluable invention for the elevation of the
tribe, and within a few months thousands of hitherto illiterate Chero-
kee were able to read and write their own language, teaching each
other in the cabins and along the roadside. The next year Sequoya
visited the West, to introduce the new science among those who had
emigrated to the Arkansas. In the next year, 1823, he again visited
the Arkansas and took up his permanent abode with the western band,
never afterward returning to his eastern kinsmen. In the autumn of
the same year the Cherokee national council made public acknowledg-
ment of his merit by sending to him, through John Ross, then presi-
dent of the national committee, a silver medal with a commemorative
inscription in both languages. 1 In 1828 he visited AVashington as one
of the delegates from the Arkansas band, attracting much attention,
and the treaty made on that occasion contains a provision for the pay-
ment to him of five hundred dollars, "for the great benefits he has
conferred upon the Cherokee people, in the beneficial results which
they are now experiencing from the use of the alphabet discovered by
him. 1 ' 2 His subsequent history belongs to the West and will be treated
in another place (40). 3
The invention of the alphabet had an immediate and wonderful
effect on Cherokee development. On account of the remarkable adapta-
tion of the syllabary to the language, it was only necessary to learn
the characters to be able to read at once. No schoolhouses were built
and no teachers hired, but the whole Nation became an academy for the
study of the system, until, "in the course of a few months, without
school or expense of time or money, the Cherokee were able to read
and write in their own language. 4 An active correspondence began
to be carried on between the eastern and western divisions, and plans
were made for a national press, with a national library and museum to
be established at the capital, New Echota. 5 The missionaries, who had
at first opposed the new alphabet on the ground of its Indian origin,
now saw the advisability of using it to further their own work. In
the fall of 1821 Atsi or John Arch, a young native convert, made a
manuscript translation of a portion of St. John's gospel, in the sylla-
bary, this being the first Bible translation ever given to the Cherokee.
It was copied hundreds of times and was widely disseminated through
1 AtcKenneyand Hall, Indian Tribes, i, p. 46, 1858; Phillips, in Harper's Magazine, p. 547, September,
18711.
- Indian Treaties, p. 425, 1837.
:1 Fur details concerning the life and invention of Sequoya, see McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes,
1, 1858; Phillips, Sequoyah, in Harper's Magazine, September 1870- Foster, Sequoyah, 1885, and Story
of the Cherokee Bible, 1S99, based largely on Phillips' article; G. C, Invention of the Cherokee
Alphabet, in Cherokee Pbcenix, republished in Christian Advocate and Journal, New York, Septem-
ber 26, 1828: Pilling, Bibliography of the Iroquoian Languages, 1888.
4 G. C, Invention of the Cherokee Alphabet, op. cit.
6 (Unsigned) letter of David Brown, September 2, 1825, quoted in American State Papers: Indian
Affairs, n, p. 652, 1834.
uooney] THE CHEKOKEE PHOENIX 111
the Nation. 1 In September, L825, David Brown, a prominent half-
breed preacher, who had already made some attempt al translation in
the Roman alphabet, completed a translation of the N i • w Testament in
the new syllabary, the work being handed about in manuscript, as
there were asyet no typescast in the Sequoya characters. 8 In the same
month he forwarded to Thomas McKenney, chief of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs at Washington, a manuscript table of the characters,
with explanation, this being probably its first introduction to official
notice. ;
In L827 the Cherokee council having formally resolved to establish
a national paper in the Cherokee language and characters, types for
that purpose were cast in Boston, under the supervision of the noted
missionary, Worcester, of the American Hoard of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions, who. in December of that year contributed to the
Missionary Herald five verses of Genesis in the new syllabary, this
seeming to be its first appearance in print. Early in the next year
the press and types arrived at New Echota, and the first number of
the new paper, Tsa'lagi Tsu'lehisanun' hi, the Cherokee Phoenix, printed
in both languages, appeared on February 21, 1828. The first printers
were two white men. Isaac N. Harris and .John F. Wheeler, with
John Candy, a half-blood apprentice. Elias Boudinot (Galagi'na, ••The
Buck"), an educated Cherokee, was the editor, and Reverend S. A.
Worcesterwas the guiding spirit who brought order out of chaos and set
the work in motion. The office was a log house. The hand press and
types, aftei having been shipped by water from Boston, were trans-
ported two hundred miles by wagon from Augusta to their destination.
The printing paper had been overlooked and had to be brought by the
same tedious process from Knoxville. Cases and other equipments
had to be devised and fashioned by the printers, neither of whom
understood a word of Cherokee, but simply set up the characters, as
handed to them in manuscript by Worcester and the editor. Such was
the beginning of journalism in the Cherokee nation. After a precari-
ous existence of about six years the Phoenix was suspended, owiny to
the hostile action of the Georgia authorities, who went so far as to
throw Worcester and Wheeler into prison. Its successor, after the
removal of the Cherokee to the West, was the Oheroke* Advocate, of
which the first number appeared at Tahlequah in 1S44. with William
P. Ross as editor. It is still continued under the auspices of the
Nation, printed in both languages and distributed free at the expense
of the Nation to those unable to read English — an example without
parallel in any other government.
In addition to numerous Bible translations, hymn books, and other
1 Poster, Sequoyah, pp. 120, 121,1885. ! Filling, Iroquoiun Bibliography, p. 21, ls.sf<.
'Brown letter (unsigned I, in American State Papers: Indian Affairs, n. p. 652, 1S34.
112 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
religious works, there have been printed in the Cherokee language and
syllabary the Cheroket Phcenioo (journal), Cheroket Advocate (journal),
Cherokei Messenger (periodical). Cheroket Almanac (annual). Cherokee
spelling books, arithmetics, and other schoolbooks for those unable to
read English, several editions of the laws of the Nation, and a large
body of tracts and minor publications. Space forbids even a mention
of the names of the devoted workers in this connection. Besides this
printed literature the syllabary is in constant and daily use among the
non-English-speaking element, both in Indian Territory and in North
Carolina, for letter writing, council records, personal memoranda, etc.
What is perhaps strangest of all in this literary evolution is the fact
that the same invention has been seized by the priests and conjurers
of the conservative party for the purpose of preserving to their suc-
cessors the ancient rituals and secret knowledge of the tribe, whole
volumes of such occult literature in manuscript having been obtained
among them by the author. 1
In L819 the whole Cherokee population had been estimated at 15.000,
one-third of them being west of the Mississippi. In 1825 a census of
the eastern Nation showed: native Cherokee, 13,563; white men mar-
ried into the Nation, 117; white women married into the Nation, 73;
negro slaves, 1,277. There were large herds of cattle, horses, hogs,
and sheep, with large crops of every staple, including cotton, tobacco,
and wheat, and some cotton was exported by boats as far as New Or-
leans. Apple and peach orchards were numerous, butter and cheese
were in use to some extent, and both cotton and woolen cloths, espe-
cially blankets, were manufactured. Nearly all the merchants were
native Cherokee. Mechanical industries nourished, the Nation was out
of debt, and the population was increasing.'- Estimating one-third
beyond the Mississippi, the total number of Cherokee, exclusive of
adopted white citizens and negro slaves, must then have been about
20,000.
Simultaneously with the decrees establishing a national press, the
Cherokee Nation, in general convention of delegates held for the pur-
pose at New Echota on July 26, 1827, adopted a national constitution,
based on the assumption of distinct and independent nationality. John
Ross, so celebrated in connection with the history of his tribe, was
president of the convention which framed the instrument. Charles R.
Hicks, a Moravian convert of mixed blood, and at that time the most
influential man in the Nation, was elected principal chief, with John
1 For extended notice of Cherokee literature and authors see numerous references in Pilling, Bibli-
ography of the Iroquoian Languages, 1888: also Foster, Sequoyah, 1885, and Story of the Cherokee
Bible, 1899. The largest body of original Cherokee manuscript material in existence, including
hundreds of ancient ritual formulas, was obtained by the writer anions lie Ivist Cherokee, and is
now in possession of the Bureau of American Ethnology, to be translated at some future time.
Brown letter (unsigned), September 2, 1825, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, n, pp. 651,652,
1884.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
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THE CHEROKEE ALPHABET
hooney] WHITE-PATH'S REBELLION 1828 II .">
Boss as assistant chief. 1 With a constitution and national press, a
well-developed system of industries and home education, and a gov-
ernment administered by educated Christian men. the Cherokee were
now justly entitled to be considered a civilized people.
The idea of a civilized Indian government was not a new one. The
lirst treaty ever negotiated by the United States with an Indian tribe,
in 177s. held out to the D( da wares the hope that by a confederation id'
friendly tribes they might he aide "to form a stale, whereof the 1 >ela-
ware nation shall he the head and have a representation in Con-
gress.'" Priber, the Jesuit, had already familiarized the Cherokee
with the formsof civilized government before the middle of the eight-
eenth century. As the cap between the conservative and progressive
elements widened after the Revolution the idea grew, until in L808
representatives of both parties visited Washington to propose an
arrangement by which those who clung to the old life might he allowed
to remove to the western hunting grounds, while the rest should remain
to take up civilization and "begin the establishment of fixed law- and
a regular government." The project received the warm encourage-
ment of President Jefferson, and it was with this understanding that
the western emigration was first officially recognized a few years later.
Immediately upon the return of the delegates from Washington the
Cherokee drew up their first brief written code of laws, modeled agree-
ably to the friendly suggestions of Jefferson. ;
By this time the rapid strides of civilization and Christianity had
alarmed the conservative element, who saw in the new order of things
only 7 the evidences of apostasy and swift national decay. In 1828
"White-path (Nun'na-tsune'ga), an influential full-blood and councilor,
living at Turniptown (U'lun'yi), near the present Ellijay, in Gilmer
county. Georgia, headed a rebellion against the new code of laws, with
all that it implied. He soon had a large band of followers, known to
the whites as "Red-sticks," a title sometimes assumed by the more
warlike element among the Creeks and other southern tribes. From
the townhouse of Ellijay he preached the rejection of the new consti-
tution, the discarding of Christianity and the white man's ways, and
a return to the old tribal law and custom — the same doctrine that had
more than once constituted the burden of Indian revelation in the past.
It was now too late, however, to reverse the wheel of progress, and
under the rule of such men as Hicks and Ross the conservative oppo-
sition gradually melted away. White-path was deposed from his seat
'SeeRoyee, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 241, 1888; Meredith, inTheFive
Civilized Tribes. Extra Census Bulletin, i>. 41, 1894; Morse, American Geography, i, p. 677, 1819 (for
Hicks,.
= Fort Pitt treaty, September 17, 1778. Indian Treaties, p. 3, 1837.
3 Cherokee Agency treaty, July 8, 1817, ibid., p. 209; Drake, Indians, p. 450, ed. 1880; Johnson in
Senate Report on Territories; Cherokee Memorial, Januarj is. 1831; see lawsof 1808, ism. and Inter,
in American State Papers: Indian Affairs, II, pp. 279-283, 1834. The volume of Cherokee laws, com-
piled in the Cherokee language by the Nation, in 1850, begins with the year 1808.
19 ETH— 01 8
114 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
in council, but subsequently made submission and was reinstated. He
was afterward one of the detachment commanders in the Removal, but
died while on the march. 1
In this year, also, John Ross became principal chief of the, Nation,
a position which he held until his death in 1866, thirty-eight years
later.'' In this long period, comprising the momentous episodes of
the Removal and the War of the Rebellion, it may lie truly said that
his history is the history of the Nation.
And now. just when it seemed that civilization and enlightenment
wcic about to accomplish their perfect work, the Cherokee began to
hear the first low muttering of the coming storm that was soon to
overturn their whole governmental structure and sweep them forever
from the land of their birth.
By an agreement between the United States and the state of Georgia
in L802, the latter, for valuable consideration, had ceded to the general
government her claims west of the present state boundary, the United
States at the same time agreeing to extinguish, at its own expense,
but for the benefit of the state, the Indian claims within the state
limits, "as early as the same can be peaceably obtained on reasonable
terms." 3 In accordance with this agreement several treaties had
already been made with the Creeks and Cherokee, by which large
tracts had been secured for Georgia at the expense of the general
government. Notwithstanding this fact, and the terms of the. proviso,
Georgia accused the government of bad faith in not taking summary
measures to compel the Indians at once to surrender all their remaining
lands within the chartered state limits, coupling the complaint with a
threat to take the matter into her own hands. In 1820 Agent Meigs had
expressed the opinion that the Cherokee were now so far advanced that
further government aid was unnecessary, and that their lands should
be allotted and the surplus sold for their benefit, they themselves to
be invested with full rights of citizenship in the several states within
which they resided. This .suggestion had been approved by President
Monroe, but had met the most determined opposition from the states
concerned. Tennessee absolutely refused to recognize, individual
reservations made by previous treaties, while North Carolina and
Georgia bought in all such reservations with money appropriated
by Congress.* No Indian was to be allowed to live within those states
on any pretext whatsoever.
In the meantime, owing to persistent pressure from Georgia,
repeated unsuccessful efforts had been made to procure from the
Cherokee a cession of their lands within the chartered limits of the
1 Persona] information from Jnines D. Wafford. So far as is known this rebellion of the conservatives
lias never hitherto been noted in print.
=See Resolutions of Honor, in Laws of the Cherokee Nation, pp. 137-140, 1868: Meredith, in The
Five civilized Tribes, Extra Census Bulletin, p. 41, 1894; Appleton, Cyclopedia of American Biography.
3 See fourth article of "Articles of agreement and cession," April 24, 1802, in American State Papers:
class viu. Public Lands, i, quoted also by Greeley, American Conflict, I, p. 103, 1864.
< Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 231-233, 1888.
hookey] PRESSURE FOE REMOVAL — 1823 24 L15
state. Every effort met with a firm refusal, the [ndians declaring
that having alreadj r made cession after cession from a territory once
extensive, their remaining lands were no more than were needed for
themselves and their children, more especially as experience had
shown that each concession would be followed by a further demand.
They conclude: " It is the fixed and unalterable determination of this
nation never again to cede one foot more of land." Soon afterward
they addressed to the President a memorial of similar tenor, to which
^Calhoun, as Secretary of War. returned answer that as Georgia
objected to their presence either as a tribe or as individual owners or
citizens, they must prepare their minds for removal beyond the Mis-
sissippi.'
In reply, the Cherokee, by their delegates — John Ross. George
Lowrey, Major Ridge, and Elijah Hicks — sent a strong letter calling
attention to the fact that by the very wording of the L802 agreement
the compact was a conditional one which could not he carried out
without their own voluntary consent, and suggesting that Georgia
might be satisfied from the adjoining government lands in Florida.
Continuing, they remind the Secretary that the Cherokee are not
foreigners, but original inhabitants of America, inhabiting and stand-
ing now upon the soil of their own territory, with limits denned by
treaties with the United States, and that, confiding in the good faith
of the government to respect its treaty stipulations, they do not hesitate
to say that their true interest, prosperity, and happiness demand their
permanency where they are and the retention of their lands. '
A copy of this letter was sent by the Secretary to Governor Troup
of Georgia, who returned a reply in which he blamed the missionaries
for the refusal of the Indians, declared that the state would not permit
them to become citizens, and that the Secretary must either assist the
state in taking possession of the Cherokee lands, or. in resisting that
occupancy, make war upon and shed the blood of brothers and friends.
The Georgia delegation in Congress addressed a similar letter to Presi-
dent Monroe, in which the government was censured for ha\ ing
instructed the Indians in the arts of civilized life and having therebj
imbued them with a de-ire to acquire property."
For answer the President submitted a report by Secretary Calhoun
showing that since the agreement had been made with Georgia in 1802
the government had. at its own expense, extinguished the Indian claim
to 24,600 square miles within the limits of that state, or more than
three-fifths of the whole Indian claim, and had paid on that and other
accounts connected with the agreement nearly seven and a half million
'Cherokee correspondence 1823 and 1824, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, n, pp. 168 it::,
1834; Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. j 16 237, 1888.
'Cherokee memorial, February 11. 1824, in American State Papers: Indian Lffairs, a, pp. II I 194,
1834 Royce, op cit, p J 17
i Letters of Governor Troup of Georgia, February 28, 1824, and of Georgia delegates, March 10,1824,
American State Papers Indian Affairs, n. pp. 475, 177, 1834; Royce, op. cit., pp. 287, 238.
V
116 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
dollars, of which by far the greater part had gone to Georgia or her
citizens. In regard to the other criticism the report states that the
civilizing policy was as old as the government itself, and that in per-
forming the high duties of humanity to the Indians, it had never been
conceived that the stipulation of the convention was contravened. In
handing in the report the President again called attention to the con-
ditional nature of the agreement and declared it as his opinion that the
title of the Indians was not in the slightest degree affected by it and
that there was no obligation on the United States to remove them by
force. 1
Further efforts, even to the employment of secret methods, were
made in 1827 and 1828 to induce a cession or emigration, but without
avail. On July 26, 1827, as already noted, the Cherokee adopted a
constitution as a distinct and sovereign Nation. Upon this the Georgia
legislature passed resolutions affirming that that state "had the power
and the right to possess herself, by any means she might choose, of
the lands in dispute, and to extend over them her authority and laws, 1 '
and recommending that this be done by the next legislature, if the
lands were not already acquired by successful negotiation of the gen-
eral government in the meantime. The government was warned that
the lands belonged to Georgia, and she must and would have them. It
was suggested, however, that the United States might be permitted to
make a certain number of reservations to individual Indians. 2
Passing over for the present some important negotiations with the
western Cherokee, we come to the events leading to the final act in the
drama. Up to this time the pressure had been for land only, but now
a stronger motive was added. About the year 1815 a little Cherokee
boy playing along Chestatee river, in upper Georgia, had brought in
to his mother a shining yellow pebble hardly larger than the end of his
thumb. On being washed it proved to be a nugget of gold, and on
her next trip to the settlements the woman carried it with her and sold
it to a white man. The news spread, and although she probably con-
cealed the knowledge of the exact spot of its origin, it was soon known
that the golden dreams of DeSoto had been realized in the Cherokee
country of Georgia. Within four years the whole territory east of
the Chestatee had passed from the possession of the Cherokee. They
still held the western bank, but the prospector was abroad in the
mountains and it could not be for long. 3 About 1828 gold was found
on Ward's creek, a western branch of Chestatee, near the present
Dahlonega. 4 and the doom of the nation was sealed (11).
1 Monroe, message to the Senate, with Calhoun's report, March 30, 1824, American State Papers:
Indian Affairs, II, pp. 460, 462, 1834.
2 Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 241, 242, 1888.
3 Personal information from J. D. Warlord.
4 Nitze, H. B. C. , in Twentieth Annual Report United States Geological Survey, part 6 (Mineral
Resources), p. 112,1899.
hookey] EXTENSION OF GEORGIA LAWS —1830 117
In November, L828, Andrew Jackson was elected to succeed John
Quinoy Adams as President. He was a frontiersman and Indian bater,
and the change boded no good to the ( Jherokee. His position was we'd
understood, and there is good ground for believing thai the action at
once taken by Georgia was at bis own suggestion. 1 On December 20,
1828, a month after his election, Georgia passed an act annexing thai
part of the Cherokee countrj within her chartered limits and extending
over it her jurisdiction; all laws and customs established among the
Cherokee were declared null and void, and no person of Indian Mood
or descent residing within the Indian country was henceforth to he
allowed as a witness or party in any suit where a white man should be
defendant. The act was to take effect June 1. L830 (42). The whole
territory was soon after mapped out into counties and surveyed by
state surveyors into •'land lots" of L60 acres each, and "gold lots" of
40 acres, which were put up and distributed among the white citizens
of Georgia by public lottery, each white citizen receiving a ticket.
Every Cherokee head of a family was. indeed, allowed a reservation
of 160 acres, hut no d 1 was given, and his continuance depended
solely on the pleasure of the legislature. Provision was made for the
settlement of contested lottery claims among; the white citizens, hut
by the most stringent enactments, in addition to the sweeping law
which forbade anyone of Indian blood to bring suit or to testify
against a white man, it was made impossible for the Indian owner to
defend his right in any court or to resist the seizure of his homestead,
or even his own dwelling house, and anyone so resisting was made sub-
ject to imprisonment at the discretion of a Georgia court. Other laws
directed to the same end quickly followed, one of which made invalid
any contract between a white man and an Indian unless established by
the testimony of two white witnesses — thus practically canceling all
deb ts due from white men to Indians — while another obliged all white
men residing in the Cherokee country to take a special oath of allegi-
ance to the state of Georgia, on penalty of four years' imprisonment
in the penitentiary, this act being intended to drive out all the mis-
sionaries, teachers, and other educators who refused to countenance
the spoliation. About the same time the Cherokee were forbidden to
hold councils, or to assemble for any public purpose, 2 or to dig for
gold upon their own lands.
1 See Butler letter, quoted in Etoyce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. '-".>7,
ee also Everett, speech in the House of Representatives on May 31, 1838, pp. 16-17, 3 s-33, i "
-For extracts and synopses of these nets sit Royce, op. clt., pp. 259-264; Drake, indians, pp. 43! i 6,
1880; Greeley, American Conflict, i, pp. 105, 106, 1864; Edward Everett, speech in the House of Rep-
resentatives, February 14, 1831 I lottery law). The Hold lottery is also noted incidentally by Lanman,
Charles, Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, p. 10; New York. 1849, and by Nitze, in his repO] l >n
the Georgia gold fields, in the Twentieth annual Report of the United States Ge
part 6 I Mineral Resources |, p. L12, 1899. The author has himseli seen in a mountain villas in Georgia
an old book titled "The Cherokee Land and Gold Lottery," containing map' and plats covering the
whole Cherokee country of Georgia, with each lot numbered, aid descriptions of the watercourses,
soil, and supposed mineral veins.
118 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.ij
The purpose of this legislation was to render life in their own
country intolerable to the Cherokee by depriving them of all legal
protection and friendly counsel, and the effect was precisely as
intended. In an eloquent address upon the subject before the House
of Representatives the distinguished Edward Everett clearly pointed
out the encouragement which it gave to lawless men: "They have but
to cross the Cherokee line; they have but to choose the time and the
place where the eye of no white man can rest upon them, and they
may burn the dwelling, waste the farm, plunder the property, assault
the person, murder the children of the Cherokee subject of Georgia,
and though hundreds of the tribe may be looking on. there is not one
of them that can be permitted to bear witness against the spoiler." 1
Senator Sprague, of Maine, said of the law that it devoted the prop-
erty of the Cherokee to the cupidity of their neighbors, leaving them
exposed to every outrage which lawless persons could inflict, so that
even robbery and murder might be committed with impunity at noon-
day, if not in the presence of whites who would testify against it. 2
The prediction was fulfilled to the letter. Bands of armed men
invaded the Cherokee country, forcibly seizing horses and cattle,
taking possession of houses from which they had ejected the occu-
pants, and assaulting the owners who dared to make resistance. 3 In
one instance, near the present Dahlonega, two white men, who had
been hospitably received and entertained at supper by an educated
Cherokee citizen of nearly pure white blood, later in the evening,
during the temporary absence of the parents, drove out the children
and their nurse and deliberately set fire to the house, which was
burned to the ground with all its contents. They were pursued and
brought to trial, but the case was dismissed by the judge on the
ground that no Indian could testify against a white man. 1 Cherokee
miners upon their own ground were arrested, fined, and imprisoned,
and their tools and machinery destroyed, while thousands of white
intruders were allowed to dig in the same places unmolested. 5 A
Cherokee on trial in his own nation for killing another Indian was
seized by the state authorities, tried and condemned to death, although,
not understanding English, he was unable to speak in his own defense.
A United States court forbade the execution, but the judge who had
conducted the trial defied the writ, went to the place of execution, anil
stood beside the sheriff while the Indian was being hanged. 6
1 -I eh of May 19, 1830, Washington; printed by Gales & Seaton,1830.
^Speech in the Senate of the United States, April 16, 1830; Washington, Peter Force, printer, 1830.
B See Cherokee Memorial to Congress, January 18, 1831.
* Personal information from Prof. Clinton Duncan, of Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, whose father's
house \\:is the one thus burned.
^Cherokee Memorial to Congress January 18, 1831.
c lbid.; see also speech of Edward Everett in House of Representatives February 14, 1831; report >>i
the select committee of the senate of Massarhusettsupon t lie Georgia resolutions, Boston, 1831; Greeley,
American Conflict, I, p. 106, 1864; Abbott, Cherokee Indians in Georgia; Atlanta Constitution. October
27, 1889.
koonki ARREST OF MISSIONARIES — 1831 119
Immediately on the passage of the first ad the ( Iherokee appealed to
President Jackson, but were told that no protection would be afforded
tlirni. Other efforts were then made — in 1829 — to persuade them to
removal, or to procure another cession this time of all their lands in
North Carolina but the Cherokee remained firm. The Georgia law
was declared in force on June :;. L830, whereupon the Presidenl
directed that the annuity payment due the < Iherokee Nation under pre-
vious treaties should no longer lie jiaid to their national treasurer, as
hitherto, but distributed per capita by the agent. As a national fund
it had been used for the maintenance of their schools and national
press. A- a per capita payment it amounted to forty-two cents to each
individual. Several years afterward it still remained unpaid. Fed-
eral troops were also sent into the Cherokee country with orders to
prevent all mining by either whites or Indians unless authorized by the
state of Georgia. All these measures served only to render the Chero-
kee more bitter in their determination. In September, 1830, another
proposition was made for the removal of the tribe, but the national
council emphatically refused to consider thesubject. 1
In January, 1831, the Cherokee Nation, by John Ross as principal
chief, brought a test suit of injunction against Georgia, in the United
States Supreme Court. The majority of the court dismissed the suit
on the ground that the Cherokee were not a foreign nation within the
meaning of the Constitution, two justices dissenting from this opinion. 8
Shortly afterward, under the law which forbade any white man to
reside in the Cherokee Nation without taking an oath of allegiance to
Georgia, a number of arrests were made, including Wheeler, the
printer of the Cherokei Phmnix, and the missionaries. Worcester. But-
ler. Thompson, and Proctor, who. being there by permission of the
agent and feeling that plain American citizenship should hold good in
an\ part of the United States, refused to take the oath. Soi if
those arrested took the oath and were released, but Worcester and
Butler, still refusing, were dressed in prison garb and put at hard
labor among felons. Worcester had plead in his defense that he was a
citizen of Vermont, and had entered the Cherokee country by permis-
sion of the President of the United Statesand approval of the Cherokee
Nation: and that as the United States by several treaties had acknowl-
edged the Cherokee to be a nation with a guaranteed and definite ter-
ritory, the state had no right to interfere with him. 1 Ie was sentenced
to four year- in the penitentiary. On March 3, 1832, the matter was
appealed as a test ease to the Supreme Court of the United States,
which rendered a decision in favor of Worcester and the Cherokee
Nation and ordered his release. Georgia, however, through her ^n
ernor. had defied the summons with a threat of opposition, even tothe
i erokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 261,262,
2 Ibid., p. 262.
120 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [etb.ann.19
annihilation of the Union, and now ignored the decision, refusing to
release the missionary, who remained in prison until set free by the
will of the governor nearly a year later. A remark attributed to
President Jackson, on hearing of the result in the Supreme Court, may
throw some light on the whole proceeding: ■•John Marshall has made
his decision, now let him enforce it." 1
On the 19th of July. 1832, a public fast was observed throughout
the Cherokee Nation. In the proclamation recommending it, Chief
Ross observes that "Whereas the crisis in the affairs of the Nation
exhibits the day of tribulation and sorrow, and the time appears to be
fast hastening when the destiny of this people must be sealed; whether
it has been directed by the wonted depravity and wickedness of man,
or by the unsearchable and mysterious will of an allwise Being, it
equally becomes us, as a rational and Christian community, humbly to
bow in humiliation," etc. 2
Further attempts were made to induce the Cherokee to remove to
the West, but met the same firm refusal as before. It was learned that
in view of the harrassing conditions to which they were subjected the
Cherokee were now seriously considering the project of emigrating to
the Pacific Coast, at the mouth of the Columbia, a territory then
claimed by England and held by the posts of the British Hudson Bay
Company. The Secretary of War at once took steps to discourage the
movement. 3 A suggestion from the Cherokee that the government
satisfy those who had taken possession of Cherokee lands under the
lottery drawing by giving them instead an equivalent from the unoc-
cupied government lands was rejected by the President.
In the spring of 1834 the Cherokee submitted a memorial which,
after asserting that they would never voluntarily consent to abandon
their homes, proposed to satisfy Georgia by ceding to her a portion of
their territory, they to be protected in possession of the remainder
until the end of a definite period to be fixed b}^ the United States, at
the expiration of which, after disposing of their surplus lands, they
should become citizens of the various states within which they resided.
They were told that their difficulties could be remedied only Iry their
removal to the west of the Mississippi. In the meantime a removal
treaty was being negotiated with a self-styled committee of some fif-
teen or twenty Cherokee called together at the agency. It was carried
through in spite of the protest of John Ross and the Cherokee Nation,
as embodied in a paper said to contain the signatures of 13,000 Chero-
kee, but failed of ratification.*
Despairing of any help from the President, the Cherokee delega-
1 Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bateau of Ethnology, pp. 264-2titi, 1SS8; JJrake, Indians,
pp i.ii i .T. L880; Greeley, American Conflict, i. 106,1864.
s Drake, Indians, p 158, 1880.
;| Royce, up. cit., pp. 262-264, -~-. 273.
* [bid., pp.274, 275.
' ' TREATY WITH RIDGE PARTY— 1835 121
tion, headed by John Ross, addressed another earnest memorial to
Congress on May 17. 1834. Royee quotes the document at length,
with the remark, "Without affecting to pass judgment on the merits
of the controversy, the writer thinks this memorial well deserving of
reproduction here as evidencing the devoted and pathetic attachment
wilh which the Cherokee clung to the land of their fathers, and,
remembering the wrongs and humiliations of the past, refused to he
convinced that justice, prosperity, and happiness awaited them beyond
the Mississippi." '
In August of this year another council was held at Ued Clay, south-
eastward from Chattanooga and just within the Georgia line, where
the question of removal was again debated in what i- officially
described a- a tumultuous and excited meeting. One of the prin-
cipal advocates of the emigration scheme, a prominent mixed-blood
named John Walker, jr.. was assassinated from ambush while return-
ing from the council to his home a few miles north of the present
Cleveland, Tennessee. On account of his superior education and
influential connections, his wife being a niece of former agent Return
,1. Meigs, the affair created intense excitement at the time. The
assassination has been considered the first of the long series of political
murders growing out of the removal agitation, but, according to the
testimony of old Cherokee acquainted with the facts, the killing was
due to a more personal motive.*
The Cherokee were now nearly worn out by constant battle against
a fate from which they could see no escape. In February, 1835, two
rival delegations arrived in Washington, One, the national party,
headed by John Ross, came prepared still to tight to the end for home
and national existence. The other, headed by Major John Ridge, a
prominent subchief, despairing of further successful resistance, was
prepared to negotiate for removal. Reverend J. F. Schermerhorn
was appointed commissioner to arrange with the Ridge party a treaty
to he confirmed later by the Cherokee people in general council. On
this basis a treaty was negotiated with the Ridge party by which the
Cherokee were to cede their whole eastern territory and remove to
the West in consideration of the sum id' $3,250,000 with some addi-
tional acreage in the West and a small sum for depredations com-
mitted upon them by the whites. Finding that these negotiation- were
proceeding, the Ross party tiled a counter proposition for $20,000, P,
which was rejected by the Senate as excessive. The Schermerhorn
compact with the Ridge party, with the consideration changed to
$4,500,000, was thereupon completed and signed on March 14. Ism;,.
hut with the express stipulation that it should receive the approval of
•Royce.Chi tion, Fifth Ann. Report Bureau of Etl logy, p. 276, 1888.
* Commissioner Elbert Herring, November 25, Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 240, L834; author's
personal information from Major R. C Jackson and J. D. Wafford.
122 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
the Cherokee nation in full council assembled before being considered
of any binding force. This much accomplished, Mr. Schermerhorn
departed for the Cherokee country, armed with an address from
President Jackson in which the great benefits of removal were set
forth to the Cherokee. Having exhausted the summer and fall in
fruitless effort to secure favorable action, the reverend gentleman
notified the President, proposing either to obtain the signatures of
the leading Cherokee by promising them payment for their improve-
ments at their own valuation, if in any degree reasonable, or to con-
clude a treaty with a part of the Nation and compel its acceptance
by the rest. He was promptly informed by the Secretary of War,
Lewis Cass, on behalf of the President, that the treaty, if concluded
at all, must be procured upon fair and open terms, with no particular
promise to any individual, high or low, to gain his aid or influence,
and without sacrificing the interest of the whole to the cupidity of a
fev^ He was also informed that, as it would probably be contrary to
his wish, his letter would not be put on file. 1
In October, 1835, the Ridge treaty was rejected by the Cherokee
Nation in full council at Red Clay, even its main supporters, Ridge
himself and Elias Boudinot, going over to the rnajoruy, most unex-
pectedly to Schermerhorn, who reports the result, piously adding,
"but the Lord is able to overrule all things for good." During the
session of this council notice was served on the Cherokee to meet
commissioners at New Echota in December following for the purpose
of negotiating a treaty. The notice was also printed in the Cherokee
language and circulated throughout the Nation, with a statement that
those who failed to attend would be counted as assenting to any treaty
that might be made. 2
The council had authorized the regular delegation, headed by John
Ross, to conclude a treaty either there or at Washington, but, finding
that Schermerhorn had no authority to treat on any other basis than
the one rejected by the Nation, the delegates proceeded to Washing-
ton. 8 Before their departure John Ross, who had removed to Ten-
nessee to escape persecution in his own state, was arrested at his home
by the Georgia guard, all his private papers and the proceedings of
the council being taken at the same time, and conveyed across the line
into Georgia, where he was held for some time without charge against
him, and at last released without apology or explanation. The poet,
John Howard Payne, who was then stopping with Ross, engaged in
the work of collecting historical and ethnologic material relating to the
Cherokee, was seized at the same time, with all his letters and scien-
i Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 278-280, 1888; Everett speech
in House of Representatives, May 31, 1838, pp. 28, 29, 1839, in which the Secretary's reply is given in
full.
= Royce, op. cit., pp. 280-281. » Ibid., p. 281.
hooney] TKKATY OF NEW ECHOTA 1835 L23
tific manuscripts. The national paper, the Cheroket Phamix, had been
suppressed and its oilier plant seized by the same guard a few days
before. 1 Thus in their greatest need the Chei'okee were deprived of
the help and counsel of their teachers, their national press, and their
chief.
Although for two months threats and inducements had been held
out to secure a full attendance at the December conference at New
Echota, there were present when the proceedings opened, according
to the report of Schermerhorn himself , only from three hundred to
five hundred men. women, and children, out of a population of over
lT.ooii. Notwithstanding the paucity of attendance and the absence
of the principal officers of the Nation, a committee was appointed to
arrange the details of a treaty, which was finally drawn up and
signed on December 29, L835. s
Briefly stated, by this treaty id' New Echota, Georgia, the Cherokee
Nation ceded to the United States its whole remaining territory cast
of the Mississippi for the sum of five million dollars and a common
joint interest in the territory already occupied by the western Chero-
kee, in what is now Indian Territory, with an additional smaller tract
adjoining on the northeast, in what is now Kansas. Improvements
were to be paid for. and the Indians were to lie removed at the expense
of the United States and subsisted at the expense of the Government
for one year after their arrival in the new country. The removal was
to take place within two years from the ratification of the treaty.
On the strong representations of the Cherokee signers, who would
probably not have signed otherwise even then, it was agreed that a
limited number of Cherokee who should desire to remain behind in
North Carolina. Tennessee, and Alabama, and become citizens, having
first been adjudged "qualified or calculated to become useful citizens."'
might so remain, together with a few holding individual reservations
under former treaties. This provision was allowed by the commis-
sioners, hut was afterward struck out on the announcement by Presi-
dent Jackson of his determination "not to allow any preemptions or
reservations, his desire being that the whole Cherokee people should
remove together."
Provision was made also for the payment of debts due by the Indians
out of any moneys coming to them under the treaty: for the reestab-
lishment of the missions in the West; for pensions to Cherokee
wounded in the service of the government in the war of 1812 and the
Creek war; for permission to establish in the new country such military
posts and roads for the use of the United States as should he deemed
necessary; for satisfying Osage claims in the western territory and
iRoyce, Cherokee Nation, op. cit. (R.'ss arrest), p. 281; Drake, Indian- Ross Paj le, Phcenix),
p. 159, 1880; Bee also Everett speech .»■" May 31, 1888, op. cit.
-Royce, op. cit., pp. :M i m [>n .[..,■! ii is:>.
124 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Leth.ann.19
for bringing about a friendly understanding between the two tribes;
and for the commutation of all annuities and other sums due from the
■United States into a permanent national fund, the interest to be placed
at the disposal of the officers of the Cherokee Nation and by them
disbursed, according to the will of their own people, for the care of
schools and orphans, and for general national purposes.
The western territory assigned the Cherokee under this treaty was
in two adjoining tracts, viz, (1) a tract of seven million acres, together
with a "perpetual outlet west." already assigned to the western
Cherokee under treaty of 1833, as will hereafter be noted, 1 being
identical with the present area occupied by the Cherokee Nation in
Indian Territory, together with the former "Cherokee strip," with
the exception of a two-mile strip along the northern boundary, now
included within the limits of Kansas; (2) a smaller additional tract of
eight hundred thousand acres, running fifty miles north and south
and twenty-five miles east and west, in what is now the southeastern
corner of Kansas. For this second tract the Cherokee themselves
were to pay the United States five hundred thousand dollars.
The treaty of 1833, assigning the first described tract to the western
Cherokee, states that the United States agrees to "guaranty it to
them forever, and that guarantee is hereby pledged." By the same
treaty, "in addition to the seven millions of acres of land thus pro-
vided for and bounded, the United States further guaranty to the
Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west and a free and unmolested
use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of said
seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty of the United
States and their right of soil extend . . . and letters patent shall be
issued by the United States as soon as practicable for the land hereby
guaranteed." All this was reiterated by the present treaty, and made
to include also the smaller (second) tract, in these words:
Art. o. The United States also agree that the lands above ceded by the treaty of
February 14, 1833, including the nutlet, and those ceded by this treaty, shall all be
included in one patent, executed to the Cherokee nation of Indians by the President
of the United States, according to the provisions of the act of May 28, 1S30. . . .
Art. 5. The United States hereby covenant and agree that the lands ceded to the
Cherokee nation in the foregoing article shall in no future time, without their con-
sent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of anystate or territory.
But they shall secure to the Cherokee nation the right of their national councils to
make ami carry into effect all such laws as they may deem necessary for the govern-
ment ami pre itection of the persons and property within their own country belonging
to their people or such persons as have connected themselves with them: Provided
always, that they shall not be inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States
and such acts of Congress as have been or may be passed regulating trade and inter-
course with the Indians; and also that they shall not be considered as extending to
such citizens and army of the United States as may travel or reside in the Indian
!See Fort Gibson treaty, 1833, p. 142.
mooned TREATY OF NEW ECHOTA — 1835 125
country by permission, according to tl»- lu«> and regulations established by the gov-
ernment of the same. . . .
\ki. 6. Perpetual peace and friendship shall exist between the citizens of the
I'niti'.l States nail the Cherokee Indians. The United stales agree to protect the
Cherokee nation from domestic strife and foreign enemies and against intestine wars
between the several tribes. The Cherokees shall endeavor to preserve and maintain
the peace of the country, and not make war upon their neighbors; they shall also be
protected against interruption and intrusion from citizens of the United stairs who
may attempt to settle in the country without their consent; an. 1 all such persons
shall be removed from the same' by order of the President of the United States. But
this is not intended to prevent the residence among them of useful farmers, mechan-
ics, and teachers for the instruction of the Indians according to treaty stipulations.
Ajrticle 7. The Cherokee nation having already made great progress in civiliza-
tion, and deeming it important that every proper and laudable inducement should
be offered to their people to improve their condition, as well as to guard and secure
in the most effectual manner the rights guaranteed to them in this treaty, and with
a view to illustrate tin- liberal and enlarged policy of the government of the United
States toward the Indians in their removal beyond the territorial limits of the states.
it is stipulated that they shall be entitled to a Delegate in the Hou i Representa-
tives of the United States whenever Congress shall make provision for the same.
The instrument was signed by (Governor) "William Carroll of Ten-
nessee and (Reverend) .1. F. Schermerhorn as commissioners— the
former, however, having been unable to attend by reason of illness
and by twenty Cherokee, among whom the most prominent were Major
Ridge and Elias Boudinot, former editor of the Phoenix. Neither
John Ross nor any one of the officers of the Cherokee Nation was present
or represented. After some changes by the Senate, it was ratified
May 23, 1S36. 1
Upon the treaty of New Echota and the treaty previously made with
tlie western Cherokee at Fort Gibson in 1833, the united Cherokee
Nation based it> claim to the present territory held by the tribe in
Indian Territory and to the Cherokee outlet, and to national self-govern-
ment, with protection from outside intrusion.
An official census taken in L835 showed the whole number of Chero-
kee in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee to he 16,542,
exclusive of 1,592 negro slaves and 201 whites intermarried with
Cherokee. The Cherokee were distributed as follows: Georgia, 8,946;
North Carolina, 3,644; Tennessee, 2,528; Alabama, 1 .4i4. 2
Despite the efforts id' Ro~s and the national delegates, who presented
protests with .signatures representing nearly Id.ooot 'herokee. the treaty
■ See New Echota treaty, 1835, and Fort Gibson treaty, 1833 Indian Treaties, pp. 633-64* and »i I -
1837; also, for full di sen-, ion of l.nlli t rallies [;. ,vee, Cherokee Nat inn. Fifth Ann. iep. I tun an , . I i h
nology, pp. 249-298. For a summary of all the measures of pressure brought to bear upon the Cher
okee up to the final removal see also Everett, speech in the House of Representative-, May 31, 1838;
the chapters on "Expatriation of the Cherokees," Drake, Indians, 1880; and tin' chapter on - 1 1 1.-
Rights— Nullification," in Greeley, American Conflict, i, 1864. The Georgia side of the controversy is
presented in E..t.Harden'sLifeof (Governor! George M. Troup, 1849.
- Ri iyee. op. cit., p. 289. The Indian total is also given in the Report of the Indian Commissioner,
p. 369, 1836.
126 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ank.19
had been ratified by a majority of one vote over the necessary number,
and preliminary steps were at once taken to carry it into execution.
Councils were held in opposition all over the Cherokee Nation, and
resolutions denouncing the methods used and declaring the treaty
absolutely null and void were drawn up and submitted to General
Wool, in command of the troops in the Cherokee country, by whom
they were forwarded to Washington. The President in reply expressed
his surprise that an officer of the army should have received or trans-
mitted a paper so disrespectful to the Executive, the Senate, and the
American people; declared his settled determination that the treaty
should be carried out without modification and with all consistent
dispatch, and directed that after a copy of the letter had been delivered
to Ross, no further communication, by mouth or writing, should be held
with him concerning the treaty. It was further directed that no coun-
cil should be permitted to assemble to discuss the treaty. Ross had
already been informed that the President had ceased to recognize any
existing government among the eastern Cherokee, and that any fur-
ther effort by him to prevent the consummation of the treaty would be
suppressed. 1
Notwithstanding this suppression of opinion, the feeling of the
Nation was soon made plain through other sources. Before the ratifi-
cation of the treaty Major W. M. Davis had been appointed to enroll
the Cherokee for removal and to appraise the value of their improve-
ments. He soon learned the true condition of affairs, and, although
holding his office by the good will of President Jackson, he addressed
to the Secretary of War a strong letter upon the subject, from which
the following extract is made:
I conceive that my duty to the President, to yourself, and to my country reluc-
tantly compels me to make a statement of .facts in relation to a meeting of a small
number of Cherokees at New Echota last December, who were met by Mr. Scher-
merhorn and articles of a general treaty entered into between them fur the whole
Cherokee nation. . . . Sir, that paper, . . . called a treaty, is no treaty at all,
because not sanctioned by the great body of the Cherokee and made without their
participation or assent, I solemnly declare to you that upon its reference to the
Cherokee people it would be instantly rejected by nine-tenths of them, and I believe
by nineteen-twentieths of them. There were not. present at the conclusion of the
treaty mere than one hundred Cherokee voters, and not more than three hundred,
including women and children, although the weather was everything that could be
desired. The Indians had long been notified of the meeting, and blankets were
promised to all who would come and vote for the treaty. The most cunning and
artful means were resorted to to conceal the paucity of numbers present at the treaty.
No enumeration of them was made by Schermerhorn. The business of making the
treaty was transacted with a committee appointed by the Indians present, so as not
to expose their numbers. The power of attorney under which the committee acted
was signed only by the president and secretary of the meeting, so as not to disclose
their weakness. . . . Mr. Schermerhorn's apparent design was to conceal the real
number present and to impose on the public and the government upon this point.
■Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. eit., pp. 283,284; Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 285, 286, 1836.
> seyJ GENERAL wniil.'s REPORTS — 1837 I "J 7
The delegation taken to Washington by Mr. Schermerhorn had no more authority
to make a treaty than any other dozen Cherokee accidentally picked up for the
purpose. I no« warn you and the President thai if this paper of Schermerhorn's
called a treaty is sent t" the Senate and ratified you «ill bring trouble upon the
government arid eventual!) destroy this [the < Iherokee] Nat inn. The Cherokee are
a peaceable, harmless people, bul you may drive them to desperation, and this
treaty can not be carried into effect except bj the strong arm of force. 1
General Wool, who had been placed in command of the troops con-
centrated in the Cherokee country to prevent opposition to the enforce-
ment of the treaty, reported on February L8, 1837, thai he had called
them toe-ether and made them an address, but "'it is. however, vain to
talk to a people almost universally opposed to the treaty and who
maintain that they never made such a treaty. So determined are they
in their opposition that not one of all those who were present ami voted
at tin' council held hut a day or two since, however poor or destitute,
would receive either rations or clothing from the United States lest
they might compromise themselves in regard to the treaty. These
same people, as well as those in the mountains of North Carolina.
during the summer past, preferred living upon the roots and sap of
trees rather than receive provisions from the United States, and
thousands, as I have been informed, had no other food for weeks.
Many have said they will die before they will leave the country." 2
Other letters from General Wool while engaged in the work of
disarming and overawing the Cherokee show how very disagreeable
that duty was to him and how strongly his sympathies were with the
Indians, who were practically unanimous in repudiating the treaty.
In one letter he says:
The whole scene since I have hern in this country has been nothing but a heart-
rending one. and such a one as I would he glad to get rid of as soon as circumstances
will permit. Because I am firm and decided, do not believe I would be unjust. If
I could, and I could not do them a greater kindness, I would remove every Indian
to-morrow beyond the reach of the white men. who, like vultures, are watching,
ready to pounce upon their prey and strip them of everything they have or expert
from the government of the Dinted state-. Yes, sir, nineteen-twentieths, if not
ninety-nine out of every hundred, will go penniless to the West. :l
How it was to be brought about is explained in part by a letter
addressed to the President by Major Ridge himself, the principal
signer of the treaty:
We now come to address you on the subject of our griefs and afflictions from the
acts of the white people. They have got our lands and now they are preparing to
fleece US of the money accruing from the treaty. We found our plantations taken
either in whole or in part by the Georgians — suits instituted against us for back rents
for our own farms. These suits are commenced in the inferior courts, with the
i Quoted by Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. «-i r . . pp. 284-285; quoted also, with some verbal differ*
by Everett, speech in House oi Representatives on Maj 31,1838.
i .i in Royce, op 'it., p 286.
» Letter of General Wool, September 10, 1836, in Everett, speeeh in Hous ol Representatives, May
31, 1838.
128 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ann.19
evident design that, when we are ready to remove, to arrest our people, and on these
vile claims to induce us to com promise for our own release, to travel with our families.
Thus our funds will lie filched from mir people, and we shall he compelled to leave
our country as beggars and in want.
Even the Georgia laws, which deny us our oaths, are thrown aside, and notwith-
standing the cries of our people, and protestation of our innocence and peace, the
lowest classes of the white people are flogging the Cherokees with cowhides, hick-
ories, and clubs. We are not safe in our houses — our people are assailed by day and
night by the rabble. Even justices of the peace and constables are concerned in this
business. This barbarous treatment is not confined to men, but the women are
stripped also and whipped without law or mercy. . . . Send regular troops to protect
us from these lawless assaults, and to protect our people as they depart for the West.
If it is not done, we shall carry off nothing but the scars of the lash on our backs, and
our oppressors will get all the money. We talk plainly, as chiefs having property
and life in danger, and we appeal to you for protection. . . .'
( reneral Dunlap, in command of the Tennessee troops called out to
prevent the alleged contemplated Cherokee uprising, having learned
for himself the true situation, delivered an indignant address to his
men in which he declared that he would never dishonor the Tennessee
arms by aiding to carry into execution at the. point of the bayonet a
treaty made by a lean minority against the will and authority of the
Cherokee people. He stated further that he had given the Cherokee
all the protection in his power, the whites needing none. 2
A confidential agent sent to report upon the situation wrote in Sep-
tember, 1837, that opposition to the treaty was unanimous and irrecon-
cilable, the Cherokee declaring that it could not bind them because
they did not make it. that it was the work of a few unauthorized indi
viduals and that the Nation was not a party to it. They had retained
the forms of their government, although no election had been held
since 1830, having continued the officers then in charge until their gov-
ernment could again be reestablished regularly. Under this arrange-
ment John Ross was principal chief, with influence unbounded and
unquestioned. "The whole Nation of eighteen thousand persons is
with him. the few — about three hundred — who made the treaty having
left the country, with the exception of a small number of prominent
individuals — as Ridge, Boudinot, and others — who remained to assist
in carrying it into execution. It is evident, therefore, that Ross and
his party are in fact the Cherokee Nation. ... 1 believe that the mass
of the Nation, particularly the mountain Indians, will stand or fall
with Ross. . . .'"''
So intense was public feeling on the subject of this treat}* that it
became to some extent a part} - question, the Democrats supporting
President Jackson while the Whigs bitterly opposed him. Among
1 Letter of .nine 30, 1836, to President Jackson, in Everett, speech in the House of Representatives,
May 31, 1S38.
- Quoted by Everett, ibid,; also by Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. cit.,p.286.
3 Letter of J.M.Mason, jr., to Secretary of War, September 25, 1837, in Everett, speech in House of
Representatives, May 31, 1838; also quoted in extract by Royce, op. cit., pp. 286-287.
MuusF.Y] ARRIVAL OF TROOPS 129
notable leaders of the opposition were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster,
Edward K\ erett, Wise of Virginia, and 1 >avid ( Ii'ockett. The speeches
in Congress upon the subject ••were characterized by a depth and bit-
terness of feeling such as had never been exceeded even on the slavery
question." 1 It was considered not simply an Indian question, but an
issue between state rights on the one hand and federal jurisdiction and
the ( institution on the other.
In spite of threats of arrest and punishment, Ross still continued
active effort in behalf of his people. Again, in the spring of I 838, t wo
months before the time fixed for the removal, he presented to Con-
gress another protest and memorial, which, like the others, was tabled
by the Senate. Van Buren had now succeeded Jackson and was dis-
posed to allow the Cherokee a longer time to prepare for emigration,
but was met by the declaration from Governor < rilmer of Georgia that
any delay would be a violation of the rights of that state and in oppo-
sition to the rights of tht owners of tin sot?, and that if trouble came
from any protection afforded by the government troops to the Chero-
kee a direct collision must ensue between the authorities of the state
and general go^ ernment. 8
Up to the last moment the Cherokee still believed that the treaty
would not he consummated, and with all the pressure brought to bear
upon them only about 2,000 of the 17,000 in the eastern Nation had
removed at the expiration of the time fixed for their departure, May
26, 1838. As it was evident that the removal could only he accom-
plished by force. Genera] Winfield Scott was now appointed to that
duty with instructions to start the Indians for the West at the earliest
possible moment. For that purpose he was ordered to take command
of the troops already in the Cherokee country, together with addi-
tional reenforcements of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, with authority
to call upon the governors of the adjoining states for as many as 4,000
militia and volunteers. The whole force employed numbered about
7,000 men -regulars, militia, and volunteers. 3 The Indian- had already
been disarmed by General Wool.
On arriving in the Cherokee country Scott established headquarters
at the capital, New Echota, whence, on May 10, he issued a proclama-
tion to tin* ( Iherokee, warning them that the emigration must he com-
menced in haste and that before another moon had passed every
Cherokee man. woman, and child must he in motion to join his
brethren in the far West, according to the determination id' the Presi-
dent, which he. the general, had come to enforce. The proclamation
conclude-: •• My troops already occupy many positions . . . and
' Royce, Cherokee Nation, up. eit. pp. 287, 289.
- [bid., pp. 289,290.
> Ibid., p. 291. The statement "( the total number of trooj
in tin- House "i Representatives, May 31, 1838, covering the whole stion of the treaty.
lit ETH— 01 9
130 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
thousands and thousands are approaching from every quarter to render
resistance and escape alike hopeless. . . . Will you. then, by
resistance compel us to resort to arms . . . or will you by night
seek to hide yourselves in mountains and forests and thus oblige us to
hunt you down?" — reminding them that pursuit might result in con-
flict and bloodshed, ending in a general war. 1
Even after this Ross endeavored, on behalf of his people, to secure
some slight modification of the terms of the treaty, but without avail. 2
THE REMOVAL — 1838-39
The history of this Cherokee removal of 1838, as gleaned by the
author from the lips of actors in the tragedy, may well exceed in
weight <if grief and pathos any other passage in American history.
Even the much-sung exile of the Acadians falls far behind it in its
sum of death and misery. Under Scott's orders the troops were dis-
posed at various points throughout the Cherokee country, where
stockade forts were erected for gathering in and holding the Indians
preparatory to removal (43). From these, squads of troops were sent
to search out with rifle and bayonet every small cabin hidden away in
the coves or by tin 1 sides of mountain streams, to seize and bring in as
prisoners all the occupants, however or wherever they might be found.
Families at dinner were startled by the sudden gleam of bayonets in
the doorway and rose up to be driven with blows and oaths along the I
weary miles of trail that led to the stockade. Men were seized in
their fields or going along the road, women were taken from their
wheels and children from their play. In many cases, on turning for
one last look as they crossed the ridge, they saw their homes in flames.
fired by the lawless rabble that followed on the heels of the soldiers to
loot and pillage. So keen were these outlaws on the scent that in
some instances they were driving off the cattle and other stock of the
Indians almost before the soldiers had fairly started their owners in
the other direction. Systematic hunts were made by the same men
for Indian graves, to rob them of the silver pendants and other valu-
ables deposited with the dead. A Georgia volunteer, afterward a
colonel in the Confederate service, said: " I fought through the civil
war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands,
but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew."
To prevent escape the soldiers had been ordered to approach and
surround each house, so far as possible, so as to come upon the occu-
pants without warning. One old patriarch, when thus surprised,
calmly called his children and grandchildren around him, and. kneel-
ing down, bid them pray with him in their own language, while the
astonished soldiers looked on in silence. Then rising he led the way into
1 Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. cit., p. 291. = Ibid, p. 291.
hoonby] OONCENTEATION INTO STOCKADES — 1838 18]
exile. A woman, on finding the house surrounded, went to the door
and <al l>'i I up the chickens to be fed for the last time, after which,
taking her infant on her back and her two other children by the hand,
she followed her husband with tin' soldiers.
All were not thus submissive. One old man named Tsall, "( lharley,"
was seized with his wife, his brother, his three sons ami their families.
Exasperated at the brutality accorded his wife, who, being unable to
travel fast, was prodded with bayonets to hasten her steps, he urged
the other men to join with him in a dash for liberty. As he spoke in
Cherokee the soldiers, although they heard, understood nothing until
each warrior suddenly sprang upon the one nearest ami endeavored to
wfeheE hi- gun from him. The attack was so suddenand unexpected
that one soldier was killed and the rest fled, while the Indians escaped
to the mountains. Hu ndreds ofothe rs^ some ofthem fr om the various
stockadesj managed also to escape to the mountains from time to time,
where those who did not die of starvation subsisted on foots and wild
berries until the hunt was over. Finding it impracticable to secure
these fugitives, General Scott finally tendered them a proposition,
through ('( olonel) W. II. Thomas, their most trusted friend, that if
they would surrender Charley and his party for punishment, the rest
would he allowed to remain until their ease could lie adjusted by the
government. On hearing of the proposition, Charley voluntarily
came in with his sons, offering himself as a sacrifice for his people. By
command of General Scott, Charley, his brother, and the two elder
-oils were -hot near the mouth of Tuckasegee,a detachment of Chero-
kee prisoners being compelled to do the shooting in order to impress
upon the Indians the fact of their utter helplessness. From those
fugitives thus permitted to remain origina ted the present eastern
band oft Iherokee.'
When nearly seventeen thousand Cherokee had thus been gathered
into the various stockades the work of removal began. Early in June
several parties, aggregating about five thousand persons, were brought
down by the troops to the old agency, on Hiwassee, at the present
Calhoun. Tennessee, and to Ros-"s landing (now Chattanooga), and
Gunter's Landing (now Guntersville, Alabama), lower down on the
Tennessee, where they were put upon steamers and transported down
the Tennessee and Ohio to the farther side of the Mississippi, when
the journey was continued by land to Indian Territory. This removal.
1 The notes on the Cherokee round-up and Removal are almost entirely from author's information
asfumishedby actors in the events, both Cherokee and white, among whom may benamed the
ne] W. It. Thomas; the late Colonel /.. A. Zile, of Atlanta, of the Georgia volunteers; the
Bryson, of Dlllsboro, North Carolina, a ho a volunteer; James l». Wafford, of ■
Cherokee Nation, who commanded oi i the emigrant detachments; and old [ndians, both east and
west, who remembered tin- Removal and had heard the story from their parents. Charley's story is
a matter of common note among the ha-: Cherokee, and was heard in full detail from Colonel Thomas
and from Wasituna ("Washington" , Charley's youngest -on, who alone was spared bj <■■ ■
on account of his youth. The incident is also noted, with some slight inaccuracies, in Lanmau,
Letters from the Alleghany Mountains. See i> 157,
182 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
in the hottest part of the year, was attended with so great sickness and
mortality that, by resolution of the Cherokee national council, Ross
and the other chiefs submitted to General Scott a proposition that the
Cherokee be allowed to remove themselves in the fall, after the sickly
season had ended. This was granted on condition that all should
have started by the 20th of October, excepting the sick and aged who
might not be able to move so rapidly. Accordingly, officers were
appointed by the Cherokee council to take charge of the emigration;
the Indians being organized into detachments averaging one thousand
each, with two leaders in ehai"ge of each detachment, and a sufficient
number of wagons and horses for the purpose. In this way the
remainder, enrolled at about 13,000 (including negro slaves), started on
the long march overland late in the fall (11).
Those who thus emigrated under the management of their own
officers assembled at Rattlesnake springs, about two miles south of
Hiwassee river, near the present Charleston, Tennessee, where a final
council was held, in which it was decided to continue their old consti-
tution and laws in their new home. Then, in October, 1S3S, the long
procession of exiles was set in motion. A very few went by the river
route; the rest, nearly all of the 13,000, went overland. Crossing to
the north side of the Hiwassee at a ferry above Gunstocker creek,
the}' proceeded down along the river, the sick, the old people, and the
smaller children, with the blankets, cooking pots, and other belong-
ings in wagons, the rest on foot or on horses. The number of wagons
was fI45.
It was like the march of an army, regiment after regiment, the
wagons in the center, the officers along the line and the horsemen on
the flanks and at the rear. Tennessee river was crossed at Tuckers (?)
ferry, a short distance above Jollys island, at the mouth of Hiwassee.
Thence the route lay south of Pikeville, through McMinnville and
on to Nashville, where the Cumberland was crossed. Then they went
on to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where the noted chief White-path,
in charge of a detachment, sickened and died. His people buried
him by the roadside, with a box over the grave and poles with stream-
ers around it, that the others coming on behind might note the spot
and remember him. Somewhere also along that march of death — for
the exiles died by tens and twenties every day of the journey — the
devoted wife of John Ross sank down, leaving him to go on with the
bitter pain of bereavement added to heartbreak at the ruin of his
nation. The Ohio was crossed at a ferry near the mouth of the Cum-
berland, and the army passed on through southern Illinois until the
great Mississippi was reached opposite Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It
was now the middle of winter, with the river running full of ice. so
that several detachments were obliged to wait some time on the east-
ern bank for the channel to become clear. In talking with old men
HOOKEY] VIJKIYAl. IN INDIAN TKKKIToRY 1839 133
and women ;it Tahlequafa tln> author found that the lapse of over half a
century had not sufficed to wipe <>ut the memory of the miseries of
thai hall beside the frozen river, with hundreds of sick and dying
penned up in wagons or stretched upon the ground, with only a blanket
overhead to keep out the January blast. The crossing was made at
last in two divisions, at Cape Girardeau and at Green's ferry, a short
distance below, whence the march was on through Missouri to Indian
Territory, the later detachments making a northerly circuit l>y Spring-
field, because those who had gone before had killed oil all the game
along the direct route. At last their destination was reached. They
had started in October, 1838, and it was now March. 1839, the journey
having occupied nearly six mouths of the hardest part of the year.'
It i- difficult to arrive at any accurate statement of the number of
Cherokee who died as the resull of the Removal. According to the
official figures those who removed under the direction of Ross lost over
L,600 on the journey.- The proportionate mortality among those
previously removed under military supervision was probably greater,
as it was their suffering that led to the proposition of the Cherokee
national officers to take charge of the emigration. Hundreds died in
the stockades and the waiting camps, chiefly by reason of the rations
furnished, which were of flour and other provisions to which they were
unaccustomed and which they did not know how to prepare properly.
Hundreds of others died soon after their arrival in Indian territory,
from sickness and exposure on the journey. Altogether it is asserted,
probably with reason, that over 4. nun Cherokee died as the direct
result of the removal.
On their arrival in Indian Territory the emigrants at once set about
building houses and planting crop-, the government having agreed
under the treaty to furnish them with rations for one year after arrival.
They were welcomed by their kindred, the •'Arkansas Cherokee"
hereafter to be known for distinction as the "Old Settlers" — who
held the country under previous treaties in 1828 and Is:'.::. These,
however, being already regularly organized under a government and
chiefs of their own. were by no means disposed to be swallowed by
the governmental authority of the newcomers. Jealousies developed
in which the minority or treaty party of the emigrants, headed by
Ridge, took sides with the Old Settlers against the Ross or national
party, which outnumbered both the other- nearly three to one.
While these differences were at their height the Nation was thrown
into a feverof excitement by the news that Major Ridge, his son John
Ridge, and Elias Boudinot all leaders of the treaty party had been
killed by adherent- of the national party, immediately after the close
onal information, aa before cited.
= Asquo1 rokee Nation. Fifth Ann Rep.Bureauoi
makesthen ber unaccounted for 1,428; the receiving agent, who t'".], chargi
on their arrival, makes it 1.645.
134 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
of a general council, which had adjourned after nearly two weeks of
debate without having been able to bring about harmonious action.
Major Ridge was waylaid and shot close to the Arkansas line, his son
was taken from bed and cut to pieces with hatchets, while Boudinot
was treacherously killed at his home at Park Hill. Indian territory,
all three being killed upon the same day. June 22, 1839.
The agent's report to the Secretary of War, two days later, says of
the affair:
The murder of Boudinot was treacherous and cruel. He was assisting some
workmen in building a new house. Three men called upon him and asked for
medicine. He went off with them in the direction of Wooster's, the missionary,
who keeps medicine, about three hundred yards from Boudinot's. When they got
about half way two of the men seized Boudinot and the other stabbed him, after
which the three cui him to pieces with their knives and tomahawks. This murder
taking place within two miles of the residence of John Ross, his friends were appre-
hensive it might be charged to his connivance: and at this moment I am writing
there are six hundred armed ( Iherokee around the dwelling of Ross, assembled for
his protection. The murderers of the two Ridges and Boudinot are certainly of the
late Cherokee emigrants, and. of course, adherents of I loss, but I can not yet believe
that Ross has encouraged the outrage. He is a man of too much good sense to em-
broil his nation at this critical time: and besides, his character, since I have known
him, which is now twenty-five years, has been pacific. . . . Boudinot's wife is a
white woman, a native of New Jersey, as I understand. He has six children. The
wife of John Ridge, jr.. is a white woman, but from whence, or what family left, I
am not informed. Boudinot was in moderate circumstances. The Ridges, both
father and son, were rich. . . .'
While till the evidence shows that Ross was in no way a party to the
affair, there can be no question that the men were killed in accordance
with the law of the Nation — three times formulated, and still in exist-
ence — which made it treason, punishable with death, to cede away
lands except by act of the general council of the Nation. It was for
violating a similar law among the Creeks that the chief. Mcintosh, lost
his life in 1825. and a party led by Major Ridge himself had killed
Doublehead years before on suspicion of accepting a bribe for his
part in a treaty.
On hearing of the death of the Ridges and Boudinot several other
signers of the repudiated treaty, among whom were John Bell,
Archilla Smith, and James Starr, tied for safety to the protection of
the garrison at Fort Gibson. Boudinot's brother, Stand Wade,
vowed vengeance against Ross, who was urged to flee, but refused.
declaring his entire innocence. His friends rallied to his support,
stationing a guard around his house until the first excitement had sub-
sided. About three weeks afterward the national council passed
decrees declaring that the men killed and their principal confederates
i Agent Stokes to Secretary of War, June 24, 1839, in Report Indian Commissioner, p. 365, 1839;
Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 293, 1888; Drake, Indians, pp. 159-460,
1880; author's personal information. The agent's report incorrectly makes the killings occur on
three different days.
mooney] REUNION OF NATION— 1839 135
had rendered themselves outlaws by their own conduct, extending
amnesty on certain stringent conditions to their confederates, and
declaring the slayers guiltless of murder and fully restored to the con-
fidence and favor of the community. This was followed in August by
another council decree declaring the New Echota treaty void and reas-
serting the title of the Cherokee to their old country, and three weeks
later another decree summoned the signers of the treaty to appear and
answer for their conduct under penalty of outlawry. At this point
the United States interfered by threatening to arrest Ross as acces-
sory to the killing of the Ridges. 1 In the meant i me the national part}
and the Old Settlers hail been eon line together, and a few of the latter
who had sided with the Ridge faction and endeavored to perpetuate a
division in the Nation were denounced in a council of the Old Settler-.,
which declared that "in identifying themselves with those individuals
known as the Ridge party, who by their conduct had rendered them-
selves odious to the ( 'herokee [ pie. they have acted in opposition to
the known sentiments and feelings of that portion of this Nation known
as Old Settlers, frequently and variously and publicly expressed."
The offending chief- were at the same time deposed from all authority.
Among tlie names of over two hundred signers attached thai of
•• ( i-eorge Guess" (Sequoya) come- second as vice-president. 8
On July 1-. L839, a general convention of the eastern and western
Cherokee, held at the Illinois camp ground, Indian territory, passed
an act of union, by which the two were declared '"one body politic.
under the style and title of the Cherokee Nation." On behalf id' the
eastern Cherokee the instrument bears the signature of John Ross,
principal chief. George Lowrey, president of the council, and Going
snake (I'nadu-na'I), speaker of the council, with thirteen others. For
the western ('herokee it was signed by John Looney, acting principal
chief , George Guess (Sequoya), president of the council, and fifteen
others. On September r>. L839, a convention composed chiefry of
eastern ('herokee assembled at Tahlequah, Indian territory -then first
officially adopted as the national capital —adopted a new constitution,
which was accepted by a convention of the Old Settlers at Fort Gib-
son, Indian Territory, on June 26, 1840, an act which completed the
reunion of the Nation. :
Till: ARKANSAS BAND— 1817- L838
Having followed the fortunes of the main body of the Nation to
their final destination in the West, we now turn to review briefly
i: rokee Nation, op. eit, pp. 294
h ii- Lugusl 23, L839, in Report In. linn Commissioner, p. 387, 1839; Royce, op. 'it..
p j'.' i
Ictof Union " and •' Constitution " in Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation, 1875;
[etti i to the Secretai ol Wai June 28, L840, In Eti | India
p, 16, 1-1"
186 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
the history of the earlier emigrants, the Arkansas or Old Settler
Cherokee.
The events leading to the first westward migration and the subse-
quent negotiations which resulted in the assignment of a territory in
Arkansas to the western Cherokee, by the treaty of L817, have been
already noted. The great majority of those thus voluntarily remov-
ing belonged to the conservative hunter element, who desired to rees-
tablish in the western wilderness the old Indian life from which,
through the influence of schools and intelligent leadership, the body
of the Cherokee was rapidly drifting away. As the lands upon which
the emigrants had settled belonged to the Osage, whose claim had not
yet been extinguished by the United States, the latter objected to
their presence, and the Cherokee were compelled to fight to maintain
their own position, so that for the first twenty years or more the his-
tory of the western band is a mere petty chronicle of Osage raids and
Cherokee retaliations, emphasized from time to time by a massacre on
a larger scale. By the treaty of 1*17 the western Cherokee acquired
title to a definite territory and official standing under Government pro-
tection and supervision, the lands assigned them Inning been acquired
by treaty from the Osage. The great body of the Cherokee in the
East were strongly opposed to any recognition of the western hand,
seeing in such action only the beginning of an effort looking toward
the ultimate removal of the whole tribe. The Government lent sup-
port to the scheme, however, and a steady emigration set in until, in
lM'.t. the emigrant^ were said to number several thousands. Unsuc-
cessful endeavors were made to increase the number by inducing the
Shawano and Delaware* of Missouri and the Oneida of New York to
join them.'
In L818 Tollunteeskee (Ata'lunti'ski), principal chief of the Arkan-
sas Cherokee, while on a visit to old friends in the East, had become
acquainted with one of the officers of the American Board of Commis-
sioners for Foreign Missions, and had asked for the establishment of
a mission among his people in the West. In response to the invitation
the Reverend Cephas Washburn and his assistant. Reverend Alfred
Finney, with their families, set out the next year from the old Nation.
and after a long and exhausting journey reached the Arkansas country,
where, in the spring of 1820, they established Dwight mission, adjoin-
ing the agency at the mouth of Illinois creek, on the northern bank
of the Arkansas, in what is now Pope county, Arkansas. The name
was bestowed in remembrance of Timothy Dwight. a Yale president
and pioneer organizer of the American Hoard. Tollunteeskee having
died in the meantime was succeeded as principal chief by his brother.
John Jolly, 8 the friend and adopted father of Samuel Houston. Jolly
1 See ante, pp. 105-106; Nuttall. who was oil the ground, gives them only L.500.
2 Washburn, Cephas, Reminiscences "i* the Indians, pp. 81,103; Richmond, 1869.
moosey] TROUBLES WITH OSAGE- 1 S I7-^' 137
had removed from bis old borne at the mouth of Hiwassee, in Ten-
nessee, in 1 81 v .
In the spring of L819 Tl as Nuttall, the naturalist, ascended the
Arkansas, ami he gives an interesting accounl of the western Cherokee
as he found theinal the time, [n going up the stream, "both banks of
the river, as we proceeded, were lined with the houses and farms of
the Cherokee, and though their die-- was a mixture of indigenous
and European taste, yel in their houses, which are decently furnished,
and in their farms, which were well fenced and stocked with cattle, we
perceive a happy approach toward civilization. Their numerous fami-
lies, also, well fed and clothed, argue a propitious progress in their
population. Their superior industry either as hunters or farmers
proves the value of property among them, and they are no longer
strangers to avarice and the distinctions created by wraith. Some of
them are possessed of property to the amount of many thousands of
dollars, ha\ e houses handsomely and conveniently furnished, and their
tables spread with our dainties and luxuries." He mentions an engage-
ment some time before between them and the Osage, in which the
Cherokee had killed nearly one hundred of the Osage, besides taking
a number of prisoners. He estimates them at about fifteen hundred,
being about half the number estimated by the eastern Nation as hav-
ing emigrated to the West, and only one-fourth of the official estimate.
A few Delawares wen' living with them. 2
The Osage troubles continued in spite of a treaty of peace between
the two tribes made at a council held under the direction of < rovernor
Clark at St. Louis, in October, L818. 3 Warriors from the eastern
Cherokee were accustomed to make the long journey to the Arkansas
to assist their western brethren, and returned with scalps and captives.'
In the summer of L820 a second effort for peace was made by Gov-
ernor Miller of Arkansas territory. In reply to his talk the I (sage
complained that the Cherokee had failed to deliver their Osage cap
fives as stipulated in the previous agreement at St. Louis. This, it
appears, was due in part to the fact that some of these captives had
been carried to the eastern Cherokee, and a messenger was accordingly
dispatched to secure and bring them hack. Another peace conference
was held soon afterward at Fort Smith, hut to very little purpose, as
hostilities were soon resumed and continued until the United States
actively interposed in the fall of L822. 5
In this year also Sequoya visited the western ( Jherokee to introduce
'Nuttall, Journal ol Travels into the Arkansas Territory, etc., p. 129; Philadelphia, 1821.
-Ibid., pp. 123-136. The battle mentioned seems t.> in- the same noted somewhat differently by
: Reminiscent es, p. 120
•Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. < it i>. 222
• Washburn, >>]■- fit.. i>. 160, and personal information trom .1. D, Wafford.
op. cit. pp. 242, 243; Washhum, op. cit., pp. 112-122 et passim; see also sk<
and Tooantuh or Spring-frog, in McKenney and Hall, Indian Tribes, i and ii, 185S.
138 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ass.19
to them the knowledge of his great invention, which was at once taken
up through the influence of Takatoka (IVgata'ga). a prominent chief
who had hitherto opposed every effort of the missionaries to intro-
duce their own schools and religion. In consequence perhaps of this
encouragement Sequoya removed permanently to the West in the fol-
lowing year and became henceforth a member of the western Nation. 1
Like other Indians, the western ( iherokee held a firm belief in witch-
craft, which led to frequent tragedies of punishment or retaliation.
In L824 a step forward was marked by the enactment of a law making
it murder to kill any one for witchcraft, and an offense punishable
with whipping to accuse another of witchcraft. 8 This law may have
been the result of the silent working of missionary influence, sup-
ported by such enlightened men as Sequoya.
The treaty which assigned the Arkansas lands to the western Cher-
okee had stipulated that a census should be made of the eastern and
western divisions of the Nation, separately, and an apportionment of the
national annuity forthwith made on that basis. The western line of
the Arkansas tract had also been left open, until according to another
stipulation of the same treaty, the whole amount of land ceded through it
to the United States by the Cherokee Nation in the East could be ascer-
tained in order that an equal quantity might be included within the
boundaries of the western tract. 3 These promises had not yet been
fulfilled, partly because of the efforts of the Government to bring
about a larger emigration or a further cession, partly on account of
delay in the state surveys, and partly also because the Osage objected
to the running of a line which should make the Cherokee their next
door neighbors. 4 With their boundaries unadjusted and their annui-
ties withheld, distress and dissatisfaction overcame the western Cher-
okee, many of whom, feeling themselves absolved from territorial
restrictions, spread over the country on the southern side of Arkansas
river,"' while others, under the lead of a chief named The Bowl
(Diwa'di). crossed Red river into Texas — then a portion of Mexico — in
a vain attempt to escape American jurisdiction."
A provisional western boundary having been run, which proved
unsatisfactory both to the western Cherokee and to the people of
Arkansas, an effort was made to settle the difficulty by arranging an
exchange of the Arkansas tract for a new country west of the Arkansas
line. So strongly opposed, however, were the western Cherokee to
this project that their council, in L825, passed a law. as the eastern
Cherokee and the Creeks had already done, fixing the death penalty
1 Washburn. Reminiscences, p. 17s. lsii'.l; see also ante p. 206.
°- Ibid, p. 138.
»See Treaty of 1S17. Indian Treaties, 1837.
» Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Report Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 243, 244, 1888.
5 Ibid, p. 243.
6 Author's personal information; see p. 143.
TREAT* OF WASHINGTON- L82S 139
for anyone of the tribe who should undertake to cede or exchange iand
belonging to the Nation.'
After a long series of negotiations such pi'essure was brought to
bear upon a delegation which visited Washington in 1828 thai consent
was al last obtained to an exchange of the Arkansas tract for another
piece of seven million acres lying farther west, together with "a per-
petual outlet west" of the trad thus assigned, as fat- west a- the
sovereignty of the United States migh< extend. 4 The boundaries
given for this seven-million-acre tract and the adjoining western
outlet were modified by treat \ at Fort Gibson five years later so as to
he practically equivalent to the present territory of the Cherokee
Nation in Indian Territory, with the Cherokee strip recently ceded.
The preamble of the Washington treaty of May 6, L828, recites that
" Whereas, it being the anxious desire of thet rovernment of the United
States to secure to the Cherokee nati f Indians. ;l s well those now
living within the limits of the territory of Arkansas as those of their
friends and brothers who reside in state- east of the Mississippi,
and who may wish to join their brothers of the West, a permanent
//"///-.and which shall, under the mosl solemn guarantee of the United
States, he and remain theirs forever a home that shall never, in all
future time, he eml larrassed by having extended around it the lines
or placed over it the jurisdiction of a territory or state, nor he pressed
upon by the extension in any way of any of the limits of any existing
territory or state; and whereas the present location of the Cherokees
in Arkansas being unfavorable to their present repose, and tending,
a- the past demonstrates, to their future degradation and misery, and
the ( 'herokees being anxious to avoid such consequences," etc. there-
fore, they vfd>' everything confirmed to them in 1817.
Article 2 defines the boundaries of the new tract and the western
outlet to lie given in exchange, lying immediately west of the present
Arkansas line, while the next article provides for the removal of all
whites and others residing within the said boundaries, "so that no
obstacles arising out of the presence of a white population, or anj
population of any other sort, -hall exist to annoy the Cherokees, and
also to keep all such from the west of said line in future.*'
Other articles provide for payment for improvements left behind;
for a cash sum of §50,000 to pay for trouble and expense of removal
and to compensate for the inferior quality of the lands in the new
tract: for $6,000 to pay for recovering stock which may stray away
•■ in quest of the pastures from which they may he driven ;" $8,760 for
spoliations committed by Osage and whites; $500 to George Guess
(Sequoya)- who was himself one of the signers— in consideration of
the beneficial results to his tribe from the alphabet invented by him:
120,000 in ten annual payments for education; $1,000 for a printing
1 Royce, Cherokee Saturn, op cit., p. 215. - [bid. pp H7 248.
140 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
press and type to aid in the enlightenment of the people "in their own
and our language"; a personal indemnity for false imprisonment: and
for the removal and reestablishment of the Dwight mission.
In article 6 "it is moreover agreed by the United States, whenever
the Cherokee may desire it. to give them a set of plain laws, suited to
their condition: also, when they wish t<> lay off their lands and own
them individually, a surveyor shall be sent to make the surveys at the
cost of the United States." This article was annulled in 1833 by
request of the Cherokee.
Article 9 provides. for the Fort Gibson military reservation within
the new tract, while article 7 hinds the Cherokee to surrender and
remove from all their lands in Arkansas within fourteeiijnonths.
Article 8 shows that all this was intended to he only preliminary to
the removal of the whole Cherokee Nation from the east of the Missis-
sippi, a consummation toward which the Jackson administration and
the state of Georgia immediately began t<> bend every effort. It is as
follows:
Article S. The Cherokee nation, west of tin- Mississippi, having bythis agreement
freed themselves from the harassing and ruinous effects consequent upon a location
amidst a white population, ami secured to themselves and their posterity, under the
solemn sanction of the guarantee of the United States as contained in this agreement,
a large extent of unembarrassed country; and that their brothers yet remaining in
the states may he induced to join them and enjoy the repose and blessings of such a
state in the future, it i.- further agreed mi the part of the United States that to each
h, ul of a ( herokee fannh now reoi ling within the chartered limits cf 1 eorgi i, or
of either of the states oast of the Mississippi, who may desire to remove west, shall
he given, mi enrolling himself for emigration, a g 1 rifle, a blanket, a kettle, and
five pounds of tobacco; (and to each member of his family one blanket), also a just
compensation fur the property lie may abandon, to he assessed by persons to he
app anted by the President .if the United states. The cost of the emigration of all
such shall also he borne by the United states, ami good and suitable ways opened
ami procured for their comfort, accomi latioh, and support by the way. and pro-
visions fur twelve months after their arrival at the agency; and to each person, or
head of a family, if he take along with him four persons, shall ho paid immediately
on his arriving at the agency and reporting himself and his family or followers as
emigrants or permanent settlers, in addition to the above, provided he and they shall
have , migrated from within the chartered limits of the st.it, of Georgia, the sum of fifty
dollars, and this sum in proportion to any greater or less number that may accompany
him from within the aforesaid chartered limits of the State of Georgia.
A Senate amendment, defining the limits of the western outlet, was
afterward found to he impracticable in its restrictions and was can-
celed by the treaty made at Fort Gibson in is:;:;. 1
Tin" Washington treaty was signed by several delegates, including
Sequoya, four of them signing in Cherokee characters. As the laws
iTreatj of Washington, May 6, 1828, Indian Treaties, pp 123-428,1837; treaty of Fort Gibson, 1-:;:;,
ibid., pp.56] 65 see also for synopsis, Eoyce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp 229,230,1888.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
NINLTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VI
TAHCHEE ITATSh OR DUTCH
From Catlin's painting of 183-1
t nkv] EMIGRATION TO TEXAS 1828 111
of the western Cherokee made it a capital offense to negotiate any sale
or exchange of land excepting l>y authority of council, and the dele-
gates had acted without such authority, they were so doubtful as to
what might happen on their return that the Secretary of War senl
with them a letter of explanation assuring the Cherokee thai their
representatives had acted with integrity and earnest zeal for their
people and had done the best that could be done with regard to the
treaty. Notwithstanding this, they found the whole tribe so strongly
opposed to the treaty that their own lives and property were unsafe.
The national council pronounced them guilty of fraud and deception
and declared the treaty null and void, as having been made without,
authority, and asked permission to send on a delegation authorized to
arrange all differences. 1 In the meantime, however, the treaty had
been ratified within three weeks of its conclusion, and thus, hardly ten
years after they had cleared their fields on the Arkansas, the western
Cherokee were forced to abandon their cabins and plantations and
move once more into the wilderness.
A considerable number, refusing to submit to the treaty or to trust
longer to guarantees and promises, crossed Red river into Texas and
joined the Cherokee colony already located there by The Bowl, under
Mexican jurisdiction. Among those thus removing was the noted
chief Tahchee (Tatsi') or •■Dutch," who had been one of the earliest
emigrants to the Arkansas country. After several years in Texas,
during which he led war parties against the wilder tribes, he recrossed
Red river and soon made himself so conspicuous in raids upon the
Osage that a reward of five hundred dollars was ottered by General
Arbuckle for his capture. To show his defiance of the proclamation,
he deliberately journeyed to Fori Gibson, attacked a party of Osage
at a trading- post near by, and scalped one of them within hearing of
the drums of the fort. With rifle in one hand and the bleeding scalp
in the other, he leaped a precipice and made his escape, although a
bullet grazed his cheek. On promise of amnesty and the withdrawal
id' the reward, he afterward returned and settled, with his followers,
on the Canadian, southwest of Fort Gibson, establishing a reputation
among army officers as a valuable scout and guide. 8
By treaties made in L826 and L827 the Creeks had ceded all their
remaining lands in Georgia and agreed to remove to Lndian Territory.
Some of these emigrants had settled alone- the northern bank of
the Arkansas and on Verdigris river, on lands later found to he
within the limits of the territory assigned to the western Cherokee
by the treaty of L828. This led to jealousies and collisions between
■ Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Aim. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, !■. 248, 1888.
2 For a sketch of Tahchee, with portraits, see McKenney and Hall, i, pp.
American Indians ii, pp. 121,122, 1844. Washburn also mentions the emigration to Texas
upon the treaty of 1828 i Reminiscences, p. -ii'. 1869).
142 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
the two tribes, and in order to settle the difficulty the United States
convened a joint council of ("recks and Cherokee at Fort Gibson, with
the result that separate treaties were concluded with each on February
14. 1833, defining- their respective bounds to the satisfaction of all
concerned. By this arrangement the upper Verdigris was confirmed
t<> the Cherokee, and the Creeks who had settled along that portion of
the stream agreed to remove to Creek territory immediately adjoining
on the south.'
By the treaty made on this occasion with the Cherokee the bound-
aries of the tract of seven million acres granted by the treaty of L828
are denned so as to correspond with the present boundaries of the
Cherokee country in Indian territory, together with a strip two miles
wide along the northern border, which was afterward annexed to the
state ot' Kansas liy the treaty of 1866. A tract in the northeastern
corner, between Neosho or Grand river and the Missouri line, was set
apart for the use of the Seneca and several other remnants of tribes
removed from their original territories. The western outlet estab-
lished by the treaty of 1828 was reestablished as a western extension
from the seven-million-acre tract thus bounded, being what was after-
ward known as the Cherokee strip or outlet plus the two-mile strip
extending westward along the south line of Kansas.
After describing the boundaries of the main residence tract, the first
article continues:
In addition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for and bounded
the United States further guarantee to the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west
and a tree and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boundary
of said seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty <>f the United States and
their right ef soil extend — provided, however, that if the saline or salt plain on the
great western prairie shall fall within said limits prescribed for said outlet the right
is reserved to the United States to permit other tribes of red men to get salt on said
plain in common with the Cherokees — and letters patent shall be issued by the
United staters as soon as iiractieable for the lands hereby guaranteed.
The third article cancels, at the particular request of the Cherokee,
that article of the treaty of 1838 by which the government was to give
to the Cherokee a set of laws and a surveyor to survey lands for indi-
viduals, when so desired by the Cherokee. 2
Their differences with the Creeks having been thus adjusted, the
Arkansas Cherokee proceeded to occupy the territory guaranteed to
them, where they were joined a few years later by their expatriated
kinsmen from the east. By tacit agreement some of the Creeks who
had settled within the Cherokee bounds were permitted to remain.
Among these were several families of Uchee — an incorporated tribe
i Treaties at Fort Gibson. February 14. 1833, with Creeks and Cherokee, in Indian Treaties, pp.
56] "■'.'. 1837.
s Treaty of 1833, Indian Treaties, pp. 561-665,1837; Etoyce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau
of Ethnology, pp. 249-253. 1888; see also Treaty of New Eehota, 1835, ante, pp. 123-125.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VII
SPRING-FROG OR TOOANTUH DU'TSU'i
i From McKcnney and Ball's copy of the original painting ol aboul L830)
THE SPANISH GKAN1 143
of the Creek confederacy who had fixed their residence al the spot
where the town of Tahlequah \\:i- aftei'ward established- They
remained here until swept off by smallpox some sixty years ago. '
THE TEXAS BAND L817 1900
As already stated, a band of western Cheixikee under Chief Bowl,
dissatisfied \\ itli the delay in fulfilling the terms of the treaty of L817,
bad Left Arkansas and crossed Red river into Texas, then under
Mexican jurisdiction, where the} were joined a few years later by
Tahchee and other- of the western band who were opposed to the
treat} of L828. Here they united with other refugee Indians from
the United States, forming together a loose confederacy known after-
ward as "the Cherokee and their associated bands," < sisting of
Cherokee, Shawano, Delaware, Kickapoo, Quapaw, Choctaw, Biloxi,
"Iawanie" (Heyowani, Yowani), "Unataqua" (Nada'ko or Ana-
darko, another Caddo subtribe), "Tahookatookie" (?), Alabama (a
(reek subtribe), and "Cooshatta" (Koasa'ti, another Creek subtribe).
The Cherokee being the largest and most important band, their child'.
Bowl — known to the whites as Colonel Bowles— was regarded as the
chief and principal man of them all.
The refugees settled chiefly alone- Angelina, Neches, and Trinity
rivers in eastern Texas, where Bowl endeavored to obtain a grant of
land for their use from the Mexican government. According to the
Texan historians they were tacitly permitted to occupy the country
and hope- were held out that a grant would lie issued, hut the papers
had not been perfected when the Texas revolution began. 2 According
to the Cherokee statement the grant was actually issued and the Span-
ish document inclosed in a tin box was on the person of Bowl when he
was killed. 3 On complaint of some of the American colonists in Texas
President Jackson issued a proclamation forbidding any Indian- to
cross the Sabine river from the United States. 4
In L826-27 a dissatisfied American colony in eastern Texas, under the
leader-hip of Hayden Edward-, organized what was known a- the
"Fredonia rebellion" against the Mexican government. To secure
the alliance of the Cherokee and their confederates the Americans
entered into a treaty by which the Indians were guaranteed the lands
■ Author's personal information. In 189] the author opened two Uehee graves on the grounds of
Cornelius Boudinot, at Tahlequah, finding with one body a number of French, Spanish, and Imeri
can silver coins wrapped in cloth and deposited in two packages on each sidi of the head They are
now in the National Museum at Washington,
- Bonnell, Topographic Description of Texas, p, ill; Austin, 1840; Thrall, History of Texas, p. 58;
New York, 1876.
'Author's personal information from J. D. Wafford and other old Cherokee residents and fr recenl
Cherokee delegates. Bancroft agrees with Bonnell and Thrall that no grant was formally issued,
but states that the Cherokee chiei established In* people in Texas " confiding in promises made to
bim, and a conditional agreement in 1822 ' with the Spanish governor Historj "i the North Mexican
States and Texas, u, p 103, 1889). It i> probable that the paper carried to Bowl was the later
Houston treaty. See next page. 'Thrall, op. cit,,s, p. 58.
144 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ass.19
occupied by them, but without specification as to boundaries. The
Fredonia movement .soon collapsed and nothing tangible seems to have
come of the negotiations. 1
In the fall of 1835 the Texan revolution began, resulting in the seces-
sion of Texas from Mexico and her establishment as an independent
republic until annexed later to the United States. General Samuel
Houston, a leading member of the revolutionary body, was an old
friend of the Cherokee, and set forth so strongly the claims of them
and their confederates that an act was passed by the convention pledg-
ing to these tribes all the lands which they had held under the Mexican
government. In accordance with this act General Houston and John
Forbes were appointed to hold a treaty with the Cherokee and their
associated bands. They met the chiefs, including Bowl and Big-mush
(( .atun'wa'll. "Hard-mush"), of the Cherokee, at Bowl's village on Feb-
ruary 23, L836, and concluded a formal trinity by which the Cherokee
and their allies received a fee simple title to all the land lying " west of
the San Antonio road and beginning on the west at a point where the
said road crosses the river Angelina, and running up said river until
it reaches the mouth of the first large creek below the great Shawnee
village, emptying into the said river from the northeast, thence run-
ning with said creek to its main source and from thence a due north
line to the Sabine and with .said river west. Then starting where the
San Antonio road crosses the Angelina and with said road to where it
crosses the Nechesand thence running up the east side of said river in
a northwest direction." The historian remarks that the description is
somewhat vague, but is a literal transcription from the treaty. 2 The
territory thus assigned was about equivalent to the present Cherokee
county. Texas.
The treaty provoked such general dissatisfaction among the Texans
that it was not presented to the convention for ratification. General
Houston became President of Texas in November. 1836, but notwith-
standing all his efforts in behalf of the Cherokee, the treaty was
rejected by the Texas senate in secret session on December It',. 1837
Texas having in the meantime achieved victorious independence was
now in position to repudiate her engagements with the Indians, which
she did. not only with the Cherokee, but with the Comanche and
other wild tribes, wdiich had been induced to remain neutral during
the struggle on assurance of being secured in possession of their
lands.
In the meantime President Houston was unremitting in his effort to
secure the ratification of the Cherokee treaty, but without success.
On the other hand the Cherokee were accused of various depreda-
tions, and it was asserted that they had entered into an agreement with
i Thrall, Texas, p. 46, 1879. ; Ibid., p. 143, 1840.
-Bunnell, Te.xiis, pp. 14J.14::. 1840.
EXPULSION FROM l i:\.\s — 1839 1 1 5
Mexico by which they were to be secured in the territory in question
on condition of assisting to drive oul the Americans. 1 The cha
runic rather late in the day. and it was evident thai Presidenl Houston
put no faith in it, as be still continued his efforts in behalf of the
( Iherokee, e\ en so far as to order the boundary line to be run. accord-
ing to the terms of the treaty i to).
In December, 1838, Houston was succeeded as Presidenl l>\ Mirabeau
B. Lamar, who at once announced his intention to expel every Indian
tribe from Texas, declaring in his inaugural message that "the sword
<hould mark the boundaries of the republic." At this time the Indians
in eastern Texas, including the ( Iherokee and their twelve confederated
bands and some others, were estimated at L,800 warriors, or perhaps
8,1 persons/'
A small force of troops sent to take possession of the salt springs in
the Indian country at the head of the Neches was notified by Bowl
that such action would be resisted. The Indians were then informed
that they musl prepare to leave the country in the fall, bul thai they
would be paid for the impi-ovements abandoned. In the meantime
the neighboring Mexicans made an effort to free themselves from
Texan rule and sent overtures to the Indians to make common cause
with them. This being discovered, the crisis was prei ipitated, and a
commission consisting of General Albert Sidney Johnston (secretary
of war of the republic), Vice-President Burnet, and some other
officials, backed up by several regiments of troops, was sent to the
Cherokee village on Angelina river- to demand of the Indians that they
remove at once across the border. The Indians refused and were
attacked and defeated on July L5, L839, by the Texan troops under
command of General Douglas. They were pursued and a second
engagement took place the next morning, resulting in the death of
Bowl himself and his assistant chief < iatfuYwa'li. "Hard-mush," and the
dispersion of the Indian forces, with a loss in the two engagements of
about 55 killed and 80 wounded, the Texan loss being comparatively
trifling. The first fight took place al a hill close to the main Cherokee
village on the Angelina, where the Indian- made a stand and defended
their position well for some time. The second occurred at a ravine
near Neches river, where they wire intercepted in their retreat. Says
Thrall, "After this fight the Indians abandoned Texas, leaving their
tine lands in possession of the w hites." '
By these two defeats the forces of the Cherokee and their confeder-
ates were completely broken up. A part of the Cherokee recrossed
Red river and rejoined their kinsmen in Indian territory, bringing
with them the blood-stained canister containing the patent for their
'Bonm-ll. Texas, pp. 1 1 :. 1 il.
I pp. 144, 146.
< Bonnell, op. eit., pp. 116-150; Thrall, op. 'it., pp. 118-120.
19 ETH— 01 10
146 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
Texas land, which Row] had carried about with him since the treaty
with Houston and which he had upon his person when shot. It is
still kept in the Nation.' Others, with the Kickapoo, Delawares,
and Caddo, scattered in small hands along the western Texas frontier,
where they were occasionally heard from afterward. On Christmas
day of the same year a fight occurred on Cherokee creek. San Saba
count}', in which several Indians were killed and a number of women
and children captured, including the wife and family of the dead chief
Bowl. 2 Those of the Cherokee w T ho did not return to Indian territory
gradually drifted down into Mexico, where some hundreds of them
are now permanently and prosperously domiciled far south in the
neighborhood of Guadalajara and LakeChapala, communication being
still kept up through occasional visits from their kinsmen in the terri-
tory. 3
THE CHEROKKE NATION IN THE WEST — 1840-1900
With the final removal of the Cherokee from their native country
and their reunion and reorganization under new conditions in Indian
Territory in L840 their aboriginal period properly comes to a close
and the rest may be dismissed in a few paragraphs as of concern rather
to the local historian than to the ethnologist. Having traced for three
full centuries their gradual evolution from a savage tribe to a civilized
Christian nation, with a national constitution and national press printed
in their own national alphabet, we can afford to leave the rest to
others, the principal materials being readily accessible in the Cherokee
national archives at Tahlequah, in the tiles of the Gheroket Advocate
and other newspapers published in the Nation, and in the annual
reports and other documents of the Indian office.
For many years the hunter and warrior had been giving place to the
farmer and mechanic, ami the forced expatriation made the change
complete and final. Torn from their native streams and mountains,
their council fires extinguished and their townhouses burned behind
them, and transported bodily to a far distant country where every-
thing was new and strange, they were obliged perforce to forego the
old life and adjust themselves to changed surroundings. The ballplay
was neglected and the green-corn dance proscribed, while the heroic
tradition of former days became a fading memory or a tale to amuse a
child. Instead of ceremonials and peace councils we hear now" of rail-
road deals and contracts with cattle syndicates, and instead of the old
warrior chiefs who had made the Cherokee name a terror — Oconostota,
Hanging-maw, Poublehead. and Pathkiller — we find the destinies of the
1 Author's personal information from .1. I'. Wafford and other old western Cherokee, and recent
Cherokee delegates; by some this is said u> have been :i Mexican patent, lint it is probably the "ik-
given by Texas. See ante, i>. 143.
"Thrall, Texas, p. 120, 1876.
3 Author's personal information from Mexican and Cherokee sources
REORGANIZATION IN THE WEST 1840 117
nation guided henceforth by shrewd mixed-blood politicians, bearing
white men's names and speaking the white man's language, and fre
quentlj with hardlj enough Indian blood to show itself in the features.
The change was no< instantaneous, nor is ii even yet complete, for
although tin- tendency is constantly away from the old things, and
although frequent intermarriages are rapidlj blea'ching out the brown
of the Indian skin, there are still several thousand full-blood Chero-
kee —enough to constitute a large 1 1- i 1 >* • if set off by themselves who
speak only their native language and in secret bow down to the nature-
gods <>!' their fathers. Here, as in other lands, the conservative
element has taken refuge in the mountain districts, while the mixed-
bloods and the adopted whites are chiefly on the richer low grounds
and in the railr I towns.
On the reorganization of the united Nation the council ground at
Tahlequah was designated as the seat of government, and the present
town was soon afterward laid out upon the spot, taking its name from
the old Cherokee town of Talikwa,', or Tellico, in Tennessee. The
missions were reestablished, the Acfrvocatt was revived, and the work
of civilization was again taken up, though under great difficulties, as
continued removals and persecutions, with the awful suffering and
mortality of the last great emigration, had impoverished and more
than decimated the Nation and worn out the courage even of the
bravest. The bitterness engendered by the New Echota treaty led
to a series of murders and assassinations and other acts of outlawry.
amounting almost to civil war between the Ross and Ridge factions,
until the Government was at last obliged to interfere. The Old Set-
tler- also had their grievances and complaints against the newcomer-.
so that the history of the Cherokee Nation for the next twenty years
i- largely a chronicle of factional quarrels, through which civilization
and every good work actually retrograded behind the condition of a
generation earlier.
Sequoya, who had occupied a prominent position in the affairs of
the Old Settlers and assisted much in the reorganization of the Nati
had become seized with a desire to make linguistic investigations among
the remote tribes, very probably with a view of devising a universal
Indian alphabet. His mind dwelt also on the old tradition of a lost
band of Cherokee living somewhere toward the western mountains.
In 1841 and L842, with a few Cherokee companions and with hi- pro-
visions and papers loaded in an ox cart, he made several journey- into
the West, received everywhere with kindness by even the wildest t ribes.
Disappointed in his philologic results, he started out in L843 in quest
of the lost Cherokee, who were believed to be somewhere in northern
Mexico, but. being now an old man and worn out by hardship, he sank
under the effort and died alone and unattended, it i< said — near the
148 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
village of San Fernando, Mexico, in August of that year. Rumors
having come of his helpless condition, a party had been sent out from
the Nation to bring him back, but arrived too late to find him alive.
A pension of three hundred dollars, previously voted to him by the
Nation, was continued to his widow — the only literary pension in the
United States. Besides a wife he left two sons and a daughter. 1
Sequoyah district of the Cherokee Nation was named in his honor, and
the great trees of California (Sequoia gigantea) also preserve his
memory.
In L846 a treaty was concluded at Washington by which the con-
flicting claims of the Old Settlers and later emigrants were adjusted,
reimbursement was promised for sums unjustly deducted from the
five-million-dollar payment guaranteed under the treaty of 1835, and
a general amnesty was proclaimed for all past offenses within the
Nation." Final settlement of the treaty claims has not yet been made,
and the matter is still a subject of litigation, including all the treaties
and agreements up to the present date.
In 1859 the devoted missionary Samuel Worcester, author of
numerous translations and first organizer of the Advocate, died at
Park Hill mission, in the Cherokee Nation, after thirty-five years
spent in the service of the Cherokee, having suffered chains, impris-
onment, and exile for their sake. 3
The breaking out of the civil war in 1861 found the Cherokee
divided in sentiment. Being slave owners, like the other Indians
removed from the southern states, and surrounded by southern influ-
ences, the agents in charge being themselves southern sympathizers,
a considerable party in each of the tribes was disposed to take active
part with the Confederacy. The old Ridge part}', headed by Stand
Watie and supported by the secret secession organization known as
the Knights of the Golden Circle, declared for the Confederacy. The
National party, headed by John Ross and supported by the patriotic
organization known as the Kitoowah society — whose members were
afterward known as Pin Indians — declared for strict neutrality. At
last, however, the pressure became too strong to be resisted, and on
October T, L'861, a treaty was concluded at Tahlequah, with General
Albert Pike, commissioner for the Confederate states, by which the
Cherokee Nation cast its lot with the Confederacy, as the Creeks,
Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Osage, Comanche, and several smaller
tribes had already done. 4
iW. A. Phillips. Sequoyah, in Harper's Magazine, September, 1*70; Foster. Sequoyah, 1885; Royc.e,
Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Hep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 302, 1888; letter of William P. Ross, former
editor of Cherokee Advocate, March 11, 18S9, in archives of Bureau of American Ethnology; Cherokee
Advocate, October 19, 1844, November J, 1844, and March 6, 1845; author's personal information. San
Fernando seems to have been a small village in Chihuahua, but is not shown on the maps.
-For full discussion see Royee, op. eit., pp. 298-812.
3 Pilling, Bibliography of the Iroquoian Languages i bulletin of the Bureau of Ethnology), p. 17 1, 1888.
<See treaties with Cherokee, October 7,1861,and with other tribes.in Confederate States Statutes
at Large, 1804; Royee, op. cit., pp. 324-828; Greeley, American Conflict, n, pp. 30-31. 1866; Reports of
Indian Commissioner for i860 to 1862.
thk u\ 11. w \i: 149
Two Cherokee regiments were raised for the Confederate service,
under c mand of Stand Watie and Colonel Drew, respectively, the
former being commissioned as brigadier-general. Thej participated
in several engagements, chief among them being the battle of Pea
Ridge, Arkansas, on .March 7. 1m'>2.' In the following summer the
Union forces entered the Cherokee country and senl a proposition i<>
Ross, urging him to repudiate the treaty with the Confederate states,
but the offer was indignantlj declined. Shortly afterward, however,
the men of Drew's regiment, finding themselves unpaid and generally
neglected by their allies, went over almost in a body to the Union
side, thus compelling Ross to make an arrangement with the Union
commander, Colonel Weir. Leaving the Cherokee country, Ross
retired to Philadelphia, from which be did not return until the close
of the war. In the meantime Indian Territory was ravaged alter-
nately by contending factions and armed bodies, and thousands of
loyal fugitives were obliged to lake refuge in Kansas, where they
were eared for by the government. Among these, at the close of 1862,
were two thousand Cherokee. In the following spring thej were sent
hack to their homes under an 1 escort to give them an opportunity
to put in a crop, seeds and tools being furnished for the purpose, hut
had hardly begun work when they were forced to retire by the
approach of Stand Watie and his regiment of Confederate Cherokee,
estimated at seven hundred men. Stand Watie and his men. with the
( !onfederate ( Ireeks and others, scoured the country at will, destroying
or carrying off everything belonging to the loyal Cherokee, who had
now. to the number of nearly seven thousand, taken refuge at Fort
Gibson. Refusing to lake sides againsl a government which was still
unable to protect them, they were forced to see all the prosperous
accumulations of twenty years of industry swept off in this guerrilla
warfare. In stock alone their losses were estimated at more than
300, head.
"The events of the war brought to them more of desolation and
ruin than perhaps to any other community. Raided and sacked alter-
nately, not only by the Confederate and Union forces, bul I » s the vin-
dictive ferocity and hate of their own factional divisions, their country
became a blackened and desolate waste. Driven from comfortable
home-, exposed to want, misery, and the element-, they perished like
sheep in a -now storm. Their houses, fence-, and other improve-
ments were burned, their orchard- destroyed, their flocks and herds
slaughtered or driven off, their schools broken up, their schoolhouses
given to the flames, and their churches and public buildings sub-
jected to a similar fate; and that entire portion of their country which
' In this battle the Con assisted by from 4,000 to 5,000 Indians of the southern ■
i erokee, under command of General Albert Pike.
- l:, >yce • in, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnolog; i
p.331.
150 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
had been occupied by their settlements was distinguishable from the
virgin prairie only by the scorched and blackened chimneys and the
plowed but now neglected fields." 1
After rive years of desolation the Cherokee emerged from the war
with their numbers reduced from 21,000 to 14,000, a and their whole
country in ashes. On July 19, 1866, by a treaty concluded at Tahle-
quah. the nation was received back into the protection of the United
States, a general amnesty was proclaimed, and all confiscations on
account of the war prohibited; slavery was abolished without compen-
sation to former owners, and all negroes residing within the Nation
were admitted to full Cherokee citizenship. By articles L5 and 16
permission was given tin 1 United States to settle friendly Indians
within the Cherokee home country or the Cherokee strip by consent
and purchase from the Nation. By article 17 the Cherokee sold the
800,000-acre tract in Kansas secured by the treaty of 1835, together
with a two-mile strip running along the southern border of Kansas,
and thereafter to be included within the limits of that state, thus leav-
ing the Cherokee country as it was before the recent cession of the
Cherokee strip. Payment was promised for spoliations by United
States troops during the war; and $3,000 were to be paid out of the
Cherokee funds to the Reverend Evan Jones, then disabled and in
poverty, as a reward for forty years of faithful missionary labors.
By article 26 ""the United States guarantee to the Cherokees the quiet
and peaceable possession of their country and protection against
domestic feuds and insurrection as well as hostilities of other tribes.
They shall also be protected from intrusion by all unauthorized citi-
zens of the United States attempting to settle on their lands or reside
in their territory." 3
The missionary, Reverend Evan Jones, who had followed the Cher-
okee into exile, and his son, John B. Jones, had been admitted to
Cherokee citizenship the year before by vote of the Nation. The act
conferring this recognition recites that "we do bear witness that they
have done their work well."*
John Ross, now an old man, had been unable to attend this treaty,
being present at the time in Washington on business for his people.
Before its ratification he died in that city on August 1, 1866, at the
age of seventy-seven years, fifty-seven of which had been given to
the service of his Nation. No finer panegyric was ever pronounced
than the memorial resolution passed by the Cherokee Nation on learn-
ing of his death."' Notwithstanding repeated attempts to subvert his
authority, his people had remained steadfast in their fidelity to him,
1 Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. cit.. p. 376.
- 1 1 1 i < 1 . . p. 376. A census of 1867 siw~ them 13,566 I ibid., p. :'.">l I.
»See synopsis and full discussion in Royce, op. cit.. pp. 334-340.
* Act of Citizenship, November 7, 1865, Laws of the Cherokee Nation, p. it.'; St. Louis, 1868.
& See Resolutions of Honor, ibid., pp. 137-140.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNL
METEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. VIII
m
I
JOHN ROSS (GU'WISGUWI'.
j and II ill's i ..|- of il riginal painting ol aboul 183 i
mooney] FIRST RAILROAD — LITERAR'X REVIVAL L870 151
and be died, as be bad lived for nearly forty years, the official!; recog
nixed chief of the Nation. With repeated opportunities to enrich
himself at the expense of his tribe, he died a poor man. His bodj
was brought back and interred in the territorj of the Nation. In
remembrance of the great chief one of the nine districts of the Chero-
kee Nation has been called by his Indian name. Cooweescoowee I t6).
Under the provisions of the late treaty the 1 >ela wares in Kansas, to
the number of 985, removed t<> Indian territory in 1867 and became
incorporated as citizens <d' the Chei-okee Nation. They were followed
in 1870 by the Shawano, chiefly also from Kansas, to the number of
770. 1 These immigrants settled chiefly along the Verdigris, in the
northwestern part of the Nation. Under the same treaty the Osage,
Kaw, Paw nee. Ponca, < )to and Missouri, and Tonkawa were afterward
settled (in the western extension known then as the Cherokee strip.
The captive Nez Perces of Joseph's hand werealso temporarily located
there, but have since been removed to the states of Washington and
Idaho.
In 1870 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railway, a branch of the
Union Pacific system, was constructed through the lands of the Chero-
kee Nation under an agreement ratified by the Government, it being
the first railroad to enter that country.-' Several others have since
been constructed or projected.
The same year saw a Cherokee literary revival. The publication of
the Advocate, which had been suspended since some years before the
war, was resumed, and by authority of the Nation John B. Jones
began the preparation of a series of schoolbooks in the Cherokee
language and alphabet for the benefit of those children who knew no
English. 3
In the spring of L881 a delegation from the Cherokee Nation visited
tin East Cherokee still remaining in the mountains of North Carolina
and extended to them a cordial and urgent imitation to remove and
incorporate upon equal terms with the Cherokee Nation in the Indian
territory, [n consequence several parties of East Cherokee, number-
ing in all 161 persons, removed during the year to the western Nation.
the expense being paid by the Federal government. < >thers afterwards
applied for assistance to remove, but as no further appropriation was
made for the purpose nothing more was done.* iii 1883 the East
Cherokee brought suit for a proportionate division of the Cherokee
funds and other interests under previous treaties, 5 but their claim was
i tee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 356-358 1888 Constitution and
Laws of the Cherokee Nation, pp. 277-284; St. Louis, 1875.
-Ruviv, op. ril
'Foster, Sequoyah, pp. 1 17. 148, 1885; Pilling, Iroquoian Bibliography, 1888, articles" Chero
eate" and "John B. Jones." Tbescl to have ended with the arithmetic— cause,
as the Cherokee national superintendent ol irhiteman."
-n'U'T H.Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, p.lxv,1881,and p. lxx, 1882; see also p. 175.
» Report of Indian Commissioner, p. Ixi
152 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth. a.nn.19
finally decided adversely three years later on appeal to the Supreme
Court. 1
In L889 the Cherokee female seminary was completed at Tahlequah
at a cost of over $60,000, supplementing the work of the male sem-
inary, built some years before at a cost of $90,000. The Cherokee
Nation was now appropriating annually over $80,000 for school pur-
poses, including the support of the two seminaries, an orphan asylum,
and over one hundred primary schools, besides which there were a
number of mission schools. 2
For a number of years the pressure for the opening of Indian terri-
tory to white settlement had been growing in strength. Thousands
of intruders had settled themselves upon the lands of each of the
five civilized tribes, where they remained upon various pretexts in
spite of urgent and repeated appeals to the government by the
Indians for their removal. Under treaties with the five civilized
tribe-, the right to decide citizenship or residence claims belonged to
the tribes concerned, but the intruders had at last become so numerous
and strong that they had formed an organization among themselves to
pass upon their own claims, and others that might lie submitted to
them, with attorneys and ample funds to defend each claim in outside
courts against the decision of the tribe. At the same time the Gov-
ernment policy was steadily toward the reduction or complete breaking
up of Indian reservations and the allotment of lands to the Indians in
severalty, with a view to their final citizenship, and the opening of
the surplus lands to white settlement. As a part of the same policy
the jurisdiction of the United States courts was gradually being
extended over the Indian country, taking cognizance of many things
hitherto considered by the Indian courts under former treaties with
the United States. Against all this the Cherokee and other civilized
tribes protested, but without avail. To add to the irritation, com-
panies of armed " boomers " were organized for the express purpose
of invading and seizing the Cherokee outlet and other unoccupied
portions of the Indian territory — reserved by treaty for future Indian
settlement — in defiance of the civil and military power of the Gov-
ernment.
We come now to what seems the beginning of the end of Indian
autonomy. In 1889 a commission, afterward known as the Cherokee
Commission, was appointed, under act of Congress, to '•negotiate
with the Cherokee Indians, and with all other Indians owning or
claiming lands lying west of the ninety-sixth degree of longitude in
the Indian territory, for the cession to the United States of all their
title, claim, or interest of every kind or character in and to said
lands." In August of that year the commission made a proposition to
1 Commissioner J. D. C. Atkins, Report of Indian Commissioner, p.xlv, 1886, and p. lxxvii, 1887.
'i>t L. E. Bennett, in Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 93, 1S90.
CESSION OF CHEROKEE STRIP— 1892 153
Chief J. B. Mayes for the cession of all the Cherokee lands thus de-
scribed, being that portion known as the Cherokee outlet or strip.
The proposition was declined on the ground thai the Cherokee con
stitution forbade its consideration. 1 Other tribes were approached for
a similar purpose, and the commission was continued, with changing
personnel from year to year, until agreements for cession and the
taking of allotments had been made with nearly all the wilder tribes
in what is now Oklahoma.
[n the meantime the Attorney -< 1-eneral had rendered a decision deny-
ing the right of Indian tribes to lease their kind- without permission
of the Government. At this time the Cherokee were deriving an
annual income of $150,000 from the lease of grazing privileges upon
the strip, hut by a proclamation of President Harrison on February
17. 1890, ordering the cattlemen to vacate before the end of the year.
this income was cut oil and the strip was rendered practically value-
less to them. 8 The Cherokee were now forced to come to terms, and
a second proposition for the cession of the Cherokee strip was finally
accepted by the national council on January 1. 1892. "It was known
to the Cherokees that for some time would-be settlers on the land- of
the outlet had been encamped in the southern end of Kansas, and by
every influence at their command had been urging the Government to
open the country to settlement and to negotiate with the Cherokees
afterwards, and that a bill for that purpose had been introduced in
Congress." The consideration was nearly $8,600,000, or about $1.25
per acre, for something over 6,000,000 acres of land. One article of
the agreement stipulates for ■"the reaffirmation to the Cherokee Nation
of the right of local self-government." 8 The agreement having been
ratified by Congress, the Cherokee strip was opened h\ Presidential
proclamation on September 16, I s '.':;.'
The movement for the abolition of the Indian governments and the
allotment and opening of the Indian country had now gained such force
thai by act of Congress approved March 3, 1893, the President was
authorized to appoint a commission of three -known later as the
Dawes Commission, from its distinguished chairman. Senator Henry
L. Dawes of Massachusetts to negotiate with the five civilized tribes
of Indian territory, viz. the Cherokee. Choctaw. Chickasaw, Creek,
and Seminole, for ■■the extinguishment of tribal titles to any land-
within that territory, now held by any and all of such nations and
tribe-, either by cession of the same or some part thereof to the Unit-
ed States, or by the allotment and division of the same in severalty
among the Indian- of such nation- or tribes respectively as may be
■ of Indian < knnmissioni r, p, 22, 1889
ion by President Harrison and order from Indian C missi n in deport of Indian
Commissioner, pp. lxxii-lxxiii, i-ji 122, 1890 rhi tease figures are from personal information.
■ rT. J. Morgan, Report of Indian C aissioner, pp, 79 80, 1892.
'Commissioner I). M. Browning, Report of Indian Commissionei pp
154 MYTHS OF THE CHEKOKEE [eth.
entitled to the same, or by such other method as may be agreed upon
. . . to enable the ultimate creation of a state or states of the
Union, which shall embrace the land within the said Indian territory." 1
The commission appointed arrived in the Indian territory in January,
1894, and at once began negotiations. 2
At this time the noncitizen element in Indian Territory was officially
reported to number at least 200,000 souls, while those having rights
as citizens of the five civilized tribes, including full-blood and mixed-
blood Indians, adopted whites, and negroes, numbered but 70, 500. s
Not all of the noncitizens were intruders, many being there by per-
mission of the Indian governments or on official or other legitimate
business, but the great body of them were illegal squatters or unrecog-
nized claimants to Indian rights, against whose presence the Indians
themselves had never ceased to protest. A test case brought this year
in the ( 'herokee Nation was decided by the Interior Department against
the claimants and in favor of the Cherokee. Commenting upon threats
made in consequence by the rejected claimants, the agent for the five
tribes remarks: "It is not probable that Congress will establish a
court to nullify and vacate a formal decision of the Interior Depart-
ment." 4 A year later he says of these intruders that "so long as they
have a foothold — a residence, legal or not — in the Indian country they
will be disturbers of peace and promoters of discord, and while they
cry aloud, and spare not, for allotment and statehood, they arc but
stumbling blocks and obstacles to that mutual good will and fraternal
feeling which must be cultivated and secured before allotment is prac-
ticable and statehood desirable."' The removal of the intruders was
still delayed, and in 1896 the decision of citizenship claims was taken
from the Indian government and relegated to the Dawes Commission. 6
In 1895 the commission was increased to rive members, with enlarged
jiowers. In the meantime a survey of Indian Territory had been
ordered and begun. In September the agent wrote: "The Indians
now know that a survey of their lands is being made, and whether
with or without their consent, the survey is going on. The meaning
of such survey is too plain to be disregarded, and it is justly con-
sidered as the initial step, solemn and authoritative, toward the oxer-
throw of their present communal holdings. At this writing surveying
corps are at work in the Creek. Choctaw, and Chickasaw Nation-, and
therefore each one of these tribes has an ocular demonstration of the
actual intent and ultimate purpose of the government of the United
States." :
1 Quotation from act. etc.. Report of Indian Commissioner lor lsil-l, p. J7, ls'.i.Y
2 Report of Agent D.M. Wisdom, ibid., p. Ml.
sibid., and statistical table, p. 570.
' Report '■! Agent D. M. Wisdom, ibid., p. 1 15.
5 Agent I>. M. Wisdom, in Report Indian Commissioner for 1S95, p. 155, 1896.
1 Commissioner I'. M. Browning, Report <>i Indian Commissioner, p. si. 1896.
; Report of Agent I). M. Wisdom. Report of Indian Commissioner for 1895, pp. 159,160.1896.
! by] i 1 1\ DITIOH in 1895 1 55
The genera] prosperity and advancement of the Chei"okee Nation at
this time may be judged from the report of the secretary of the < !her-
okee national board of education to |A.gen1 Wisdom. He reports 1,800
children attending two seminaries, male and female, two high schools,
and one hundred primary schools, teachers being paid from |35 to
$100 per month for nine months in the year. Fourteen primary
schools were for the use of the negro citizens of the Nation, besides
which they had a fine high school, kept up, like all the others, at the
expense of the Cherokee goverment. Besides the national schools
there were twelve mission schools helping to do splendid work for
children of both citizens and noncitizens. Children of noncitizens
were not allowed to attend the Cherokee national schools, but had
their o\\ n subscription schools. The orphan asylum ranked as a high
school, in which L50 orphans were hoarded and educated, \\ ith gradu-
ates every year. It was a large brick building of three stories. 80 by
240 feet. The male seminary, accommodating 200 pupils, and the
female seminary, accommodating 225 pupils, were also large brick
structures, three stories in height and L50 by 240 feet on the ground.
Three members, all Cherokee by blood, constituted a board of educa-
tion. The secretary adds that the Cherokee are proud of their scl Is
and educational institutions, and that no other country under the sun
is so Messed with etlucat ional advantages at large. 1
At this time the Cherokee Nation numbered something over 25,000
Indian, white, and negro citizens; the total citizen population of the
three races in the five civilized tribes numbered about 70,000, while
the noncitizens had increased to 250,000 and their number was being
rapidly augmented. 2 Realizing that the swift, inevitable end must be
the destruction of their national governments, the Cherokee began
once more to consider the question of removal from the United States.
Thescheme is outlined in a letter written by a brother of the principal
chief of the Cherokee Nation under date of May 31. 1895, from which
we quote.
After prefacing that the government of the United State- seems
determined to break up the tribal autonomy of the five civilized
tribes and to divide their lands, thus bringing about conditions
under which the Cherokee could not exist, he continues:
Then for a remedy that will lead us nut of it, away from it. and one that pr isea
niir preservation as a distinct race of people in the enjoyment of customs, social ami
political, that have been handed down to us from remote generations of the past.
My plan is for the- Cherokees to sell their entire landed possessions to the United
^tatcs. divide the proceeds thereof per capita, then such as desire to do so unit.' in
ili.' formation of an Indian colony, and with their funds jointly purchase in Mexico
iLetterol \ r . : of the Board of Education, in Report of Indian Commissioner for
1895, p. I'll. 1896. I he authoi can add personal testimony as to tin npletenesa <>! tbi
establishment
= Report of Agent Wisdom, ibid., p. 162.
156 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
<>r Smith America a body of land sufficient for all their purposes; to be forever their
joint home. ... I believe also that for such fndians as did not desire to join
the colony and leave the country provision should be made for them to repurchase
their old homes, or such < it her lands in the country here as they might desire, and
they could remain here and meet such fate as awaits them. I believe this presents '
the mi i-t feasible and equitable solution of the questions that we must decide in the
near future, and will prove absolutely just and fair to all classes and conditions of
our citizens. 1 also believe thai the same could be acted upon by any or all of the
five civilized tribes. . . . l
The final chapter is nearly written. I5y successive enactments
within the last ten years the jurisdiction of the Indian courts has
been steadily narrowed and the authority of the Federal courts pro-
portionately extended; the right to determine Indian citizenship has
been taken from the Indians and vested in a Government commission;
the lands of the five tribes have been surveyed and seetionized by
Government surveyors: and by the sweeping provisions of the Curtis
act of June 28, L898, "for the protection of the people of the Indian
Territory." the entire control of tribal revenues is taken from the five
Indian tribes and vested with a resident supervising inspector, the
tribal courts are abolished, allotments are made compulsory, and
authority is given to incorporate white men's towns in the Indian
tribes. 8 By this act the five civilized tribes are reduced to the
condition of ordinary reservation tribes under government agents
with white communities planted in their midst. In the meantime the
Dawes commission, continued up to the present, has by unremitting
effort broken down the opposition of the Choctaw and Chickasaw,
who have consented to allotment, while the Creeks and the Seminole
are now wavering. 3 The Cherokee still hold out, the Ketoowah secret
society (47) especially being strong in its resistance, and when the end
conies it is possible that the protest will take shape in a wholesale
emigration to Mexico. Late in 1897 the agent for the live tribes
reports that "there seems a determined purpose on the part of many
fullbloods ... to emigrate to either Mexico or South America
and there purchase new homes for themselves and families. Such
individual action may grow to the proportion of a colony, and it is
understood that liberal grants of land can be secured from the coun-
tries mentioned.' Mexican agents are now (1901) among the Cherokee
advocating the scheme, which may develop to include a large propor-
tion of the five civilized tribes. 6
By the census of 1898, the most recent taken, as reported by Agent
1 Letter oi Bird Harris, May 31, 1895, in Report of Indian Commissioner fur 189ft, p. 160. 1896.
^Synopsis of Curtis act, pp. T.v-vn. and Curtis act in full, p. 425 et seq., in Report of Indian Commis-
sioner tor 1898; noted also in Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 84 et seq., 1899.
1 Commissioner W. A. Jones, ibid., pp. i, 84 et seq. (Curtis act and Dawes commission).
1 Report of Agent I». M. Wisdom, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 141-144, 1*97
6 Author's personal information: see also House bill No. 1165 " for the relief of certain Indians in
Indian Territory," etc., Fifty-sixth Congress, first session. l'.HHi.
i nei (' I'SAI.A AND < HAKLEY L57
Wisdom, the Cherokee Nation numbered 34,46] persons, as follows:
Cherokee by blood (including all degrees of admixture), 26,£ : inter
married whites, 2,300; negro Ereedmen, 1,000; Delaware, 871; >ha«
nee, 7: mi. The total acreage of the Nation was 5,031,351 acres, which,
if divided per capita under the provisions of the Curtis bill, after
deducting 60,000 acres reserved for town-site and other purposes,
would give to each Cherokee citizen 111 acres. 1 It tnusl be noted
that the official rolls include a large number of persons whose claims
are disputed by the Cherokee authorities.
nil: EASTERN BAND
It remains to speak of the eastern hand of Cherokee -the remnant
which still dines to the woods and waters of the old home country.
As has been said, a considerable number had eluded the troop-- in the
general round-up of 1838 and had tied to the fastnesses of the high
mountains. Here they were joined by others who had managed to
break through the guard at Calhoun and other collecting stations, until
the whole number of fugitives in hiding amounted to a thousand or
more, principally of the mountain Cherokee of North Carolina, the
purest-blooded and mosl conservative of the Nation. About one-half
the refugee warriors had put themselves under command of a noted
Leader named U'tsala, '"Lichen."' who made his headquarters amid the
lofty peaks at the head of Oconaluftee, from which secure hiding
place, although reduced to extremity of suffering from starvation and
exposure, they defied every effort to effect their capture.
The work of running down these fugitives proved to be so difficult
an undertaking and so well-nigh barren, of result that when Charley
and his sons made their bold stroke for freedom 5 General Scott eagerly
seized the incident as an opportunity for compromise. To this end he
engaged the services of William 11. Thomas, a trader who for more
than twenty years had been closely identified with the mountain Cher-
okee and possessed their full confidence, and authorized him to submit
to U'tsala a proposition that if the latter would seize Charley and the
others who had been concerned in the attack upon the soldiers and
surrender them for punishment, the pursuit would be called off and
the fugitives allowed to stay unmolested until an effort could be made
to secure permission from the general government for them to remain.
Thomas accepted the commission, and taking with him one or two
Indian- made his way over secret paths to U'tsala's hiding place. He
presented Scott's proposition and represented to the chief that by
aiding in bringing Charley's party to punishment according to the
rule- of war he could secure respite tor his sorely pressed followers,
with the ultimate hope that they might he allowed to remain in their
1 Report of Agent I). M. Wisdom, Report "i [ndian Commissioner, p. 159, 189S.
ge 131.
158 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
own country, whereas if he rejected the offer the whole force of the
seven thousand troops which hud now completed the work of gather-
ing up and deporting the rest of the tribe would be set loose upon his
own small hand until the last refugee had been either taken or
killed.
U'tsala turned the proposition in his mind long and seriously. His
heart was hitter, for his wife and little son had starved to death on the
mountain side, but he thought of the thousands who were already on
their Long march into exile and then he looked round upon his little
band of followers. If only they might stay, even though a few must
lie sacrificed, it was better than that all should die — for they had sworn
never to leave their country. He consented and Thomas returned to
report to General Scott.
Now occurred a remarkable incident which shows the character of
Thomas and the masterly influence which he already had over the
Indians, although as yet he was hardly more than thirty years old. It
was known that Charley and his party were in hiding in a cave of the
Great Smokies, at the head of Deep creek, but it was not thought
likely that he could be taken without hloodshed and a further delay
which might prejudice the whole undertaking. Thomas determined to
go to him and try to persuade him to come in and surrender. Declin-
ing Scott's otter of an escort, he went alone to the cave, and, getting
between the Indians and their guns as they were sitting around the
tire near the entrance, he walked up to Charley and announced his
message. The old man listened in silence and then said simply, "I
will come in. I don't want to be hunted down by my own people."
They came in voluntarily and were shot, as has been already narrated,
one only, a mere boy, being spared on account of his youth. This
boy, now an old man, is still living. Wasitu'na, better known to the
whites as Washington. 1
A respite having thus been obtained for the fugitives, Thomas next
went to Washington to endeavor to make some arrangement for their
permanent settlement. Under the treaty of New Echota, in 1835, the
Cherokee were entitled, besides the lump sum of five million dollars
for the lands ceded, to an additional compensation for the improve-
ments which they were forced to abandon and for spoliations by white
citizens, together with a per capita allowance to cover the cost of
removal and subsistence for one year in the new country. The twelfth
article had also provided that such Indians as chose to remain in the
East and become citizens there might do so under certain conditions.
i Charley's story as here given is from the author's personal information, derived chiefly from con-
versations with Colonel Thomas and with Wasitu'na and other old Indians. An ornate but some
u hat inaccurate account is given also in Lanman's Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, written on
the ground ten years after the events deseribed. The leading lactsare noted in General Scott's official
dispatches.
PURCHASE OF Ql AM. A KI--I IM \TI<>.\- 1842 L59
cadi head of a family thus remaining to be confirmed in a preemption
right i" L60 acres. In consequence of the settled purpose of President
Jackson to deport e\ cry Indian, this permission was canceled and sup
plementary articles substituted by which some additional compensation
was allowed in lieu of the promised preemptions and all individual
reservations granted under previous treaties. 1 Every Cherokee was
thus made a landless alien in his original country.
The last party of emigrant Cherokee had started for the West in
December, L838. Nine months afterwards the refugees still scattered
about in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee were reported
to number L,046. ! By persistent effort at Washington from L836 to
L842, including one continuous stay of three years at the capital city,
Thomas finally obtained governmental permission for these to remain,
and their share of the moneys due for improvements and reservations
confiscated was placed at his disposal, as their agent and trustee, for the
purpose of buying lands upon which they could be permanently settled.
Under this authority he bought for them, at various times up to the
year L861, a number of contiguous tracts of land upon Oconaluftee
river and Soco creek, within the present Swain and Jackson counties
of North Carolina, together with several detached tracts in the more
western counties of the same state. The main body, upon the waters
of Oconaluftee, which was chiefly within the limits of the cession of
L819, came afterward to he known as the Qualla boundary, or Qualla
reservation, taking the name from Thomas' principal trading store
and agency headquarters. The detached western tracts were within
the final cession of 1835, hut all alike were bought by Thomas from
\\ hite owners. As North ( Jarolina refused to recognize Indians a- land-
owners within the state, and persisted in this refusal until L866, 3
Thomas, as their authorized agent under the Government, held the
deeds in his own name. Before it was legally possible under the state
laws to transfer the title to the Indians, his own affairs had become
involved and his health impaired by age and the hardships of military
service so that his mind gave way. thus leaving the whole question of
the Indian title a subject of litigation until its adjudication by the
United States in 1875, supplemented by further decisions in 1894.
To Colonel William Holland Thomas the East Cherokee of to-day
owe their existence as a people, and for half a century he was as inti-
mately connected with their history as was John Ross with that of the
main Cherokee Nation. Singularly enough, their connection with
Cherokee affairs extended o\-er nearly the same period, hut while
Ross participated in their national matters Thomas cave his effort to
■ Bchota u<'. ii :• ! supplementary articles, March I. 1836, in Indian
Treaties pp. I ilso full discussion of sami treat) in i: Sation, Fifth Ann.
Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1888.
op -II ,p.292 I ibid.,p.31 i
160 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.asn.19
\
a neglected bund hardly known in the councils of the tribe. In his
many-sided capacity he strikingly resembles another white man promi-
nent in Cherokee history, General Sam Houston.
Thomas was born in the year 1805 on Raccoon creek, about two miles
from Waynesville in North Carolina. His father, who was related to
President Zachary Taylor, came of a Welsh family which had immi-
grated to Virginia at an early period, while on his mother's side he
was descended from a Maryland family of Revolutionary stock. He
was an only and posthumous child, his father having been accidentally
drowned a short time before the boy was born. Being unusually
bright for his age, he was engaged when only twelve years old to
tend an Indian trading store on Soco creek, in the present Jackson
county, owned by Felix Walker, son of the Congressman of the same
name who made a national reputation by "talking for Buncombe."
The store was on the south side of the creek, about a mile above the
now abandoned Macedonia mission, within the present reservation, and
was a branch of a larger establishment which Walker himself kept at
Waynesville. The trade was chiefly in skins and ginseng, or "sang,"
the latter for shipment to China, where it was said to be worth its
weight in silver. This trade was very pi'ofitable. as the price to the
Indians was but ten cents per pound in merchandise for the green root,
whereas it now brings seventy-five cents in cash upon the reservation,
the supply steadily diminishing with every year. The contract was
for three years' service for a total compensation of one. hundred dollars
and expenses, but Walker devoted so much of his attention to law
studies that the Waynesville store was finally closed for debt, and at
the end of his contract term young Thomas was obliged to accept a
lot of second-hand law books in lieu of other payment. How well he
made use of them is evident from his subsequent service in the state
senate and in other official capacities. *
Soon after entering upon his duties he attracted the notice of Yon-
aguska. or Drowning-bear (Ya'na-giin'ski, "Bear-drowning-him"), the
acknowledged chief of all the, Cherokee then living on the waters of
Tin kasegee and Oconaluftee — the old Kituhwa country. On learning
that the boy had neither father nor brother, the old chief formally
adopted him as his son. and as such he was thenceforth recognized in
the tribe under the name of Wil-Usdi', or "Little Will." he being of
small stature even in mature age. From his Indian friends, particu-
larly a boy of the same age who was his companion in' the -tore, he
learned the language as well as a white man has ever learned it. so that
in his dec lining years it dwelt in memory more strongly than his
mother tongue. After the invention of the Cherokee alphabet, he
learned also to read and write the language,,
In L819 the lands on Tuckasegee and its branches were sold by the
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. IX
COL. W. H. THOMAS WIL-USDI'i
Ft photogra 1 1858 kindly loaned by Capt. James \v. Terrell)
WILLIAM II. THOMAS L61
Indian-, and Thomas's mother soon after removed from Waj nes^ ille to
a farm which she purchased on the west bank of Oconaluf tee, opposite
the month of Soco, where her son went to live with her, having now
--ft up in business lor himself at Qualla. Ybnaguska and his immedi-
ate connection continued to reside on a -mall reservation in the same
neighborhood, while the rest of the Cherokee retired to the west of
the Nantahala mountains, though still visiting and trading on Soco.
After several shiftings Thomas finally, soon after the removal in l s ".s.
bought a farm on the northern hank of Tuckasegee, just above the
present town of Whittier in Swain county, and built there a home-
stead which he called Stekoa, after an Indian town destroyed by
Rutherford which had occupied the same site. At the time of the
removal he was the proprietor of five trading stores in or adjoining the
Cherokee country, viz. at Qualla town, near the mouth of Soco creek;
on Scott's creek, near Webster; on Cheowa, near the present Robbins
ville; at the junction of Valley river and Hiwassee, now Murphy; and
at the Cherokee agency at Calhoun (now Charleston). Tennessee.
Besides carrying on a successful trading business he was also studying
law and taking an active interest in local politics.
In his capacity as agent for the eastern Cherokee he laid off the.
lands purchased for them into five districts or "towns," which he
named Bird town. Paint town. Wolf town, Yellow hill, and Big cove,
the name- which they -till retain, the first three beingthose of Chero-
kee clans. 1 He also drew up for them a simple form of government,
the execution of which was in his own and Ybnaguska's hands until the
death of the latter, after which the hand knew no other chief than
Thomas until his retirement from active life. In 1848 he was elected
to the state senate and continued to serve in that capacity until the
outbreak of the civil war. As state senator he inaugurated a system of
road improvements for western North Carolina and was also the father
of the Western North Carolina Railroad (now a part of the Southern
-\ stem), originally projected to develop the copper mines of Ducktown,
Tennessee.
With his colleagues in the state senate he voted for secession in 1861,
and at once resigned to recruit troops for the Confederacy, to which,
until the close of the war. he gave his whole time, thought, and effort.
In 1862 he organized the Thomas Legion, consisting of two regiments
of infantry, a battalion of cavalry, a company of engineers, and a field
battery, he himself commanding as colonel, although then nearly sixty
years of age. Four companies were made up principally of his own
Cherokee. The Thomas Legion operated chiefly as a frontier guard
i In the Cherokee language rsiskwa'hl, --Bird place," Ani'-Wa'dihl, "Paint place, (Va'ya'hl, "Wolf
place," E'lawa'di, "Red earth" (now Cherokee post-office and tanufi'yl "Raven
place." There was also, for a tune, a " Pretty-woman town" Ani'-Gila'hl?).
19 KTH— Ul 11
162 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ans.19
for the Confederacy along the mountain region southward from Cum-
berland gap.
After tlic close of the conflict he returned to his home at Stekoa and
again took charge, unofficially, of the affairs of the Cherokee, whom
lie attended during the smallpox epidemic of 1866 and assisted through
the unsettled conditions of the reconstruction period. His own
resources had been swept away by the war. and all his hopes had gone
down with the lost cause. This, added to the effects of three years of
hardship and anxiety in the field when already almost past the age
limit, soon after brought about a physical and mental eollapse, from
which lie never afterward rallied except at intervals, when for a short
time the old spirit would Hash out in all its brightness. He died in
1893 at the advanced age of nearly ninety, retaining to the last the
courteous manner of a gentleman by nature and training, with an
exact memory and the clear-cut statement of a lawyer and man of
affairs. To his work in the state senate the people of western North
Carolina owe more than to that of any other man, while among the
older Cherokee the name of Wil-Csdi' is still revered as that of a
father and a great chief. 1
Yonaguska. properly Ya'iui-giifi'ski, the adopted father of Thomas,
is the most prominent chief in the history of the East Cherokee,
although, singularly enough, his name does not occur in connection
with any of the early wars or treaties. This is due partly to the fact
that he was a peace chief and counselor rather than a war leader, and
in part to the fact that the isolated position of the mountain Cherokee
kept them aloof in a gnat measure from the tribal councils of those
living to the west anil south. In person he was strikingly handsome,
being six feet three inches in height and strongly built, with a faint
tinge of red. due to a slight strain of white blood on his father's side.
relieving the brown of his cheek. In power of oratory he is said to
have surpassed any other chief of his day. When the Cherokee lands
on Tuckasegee were sold by the treaty of 1819, Yonaguska continued
to reside on a reservation of 640 acres in a bend of the river a short dis-
tance above the present Bryson City, on the site of the ancient
Kituhwa. 1 le afterward moved over to Oconaluftee, and finally, after
the Removal, gathered his people about him and settled with them on
Soco creek on lands purchased for them by Thomas.
'The fact? concerning Colonel Thorna-- '* < :nvi t uiv .1' -rived chiefly from the author's conversations
with Thomas himself, supplemented by information from his former assistant, Capt. James W.
Terrell, and others who knew him. together with an admirable sketch in the North Carolina Univer-
sity Magazine for May 1899, by Mrs. A. c. Avery, his daughter. He is also frequently noticed, in con-
nection with East Cherokee matters, in the annual reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; in
the North Carolina Confederate Roster; in Lanman's Letters from the Alleghany Mountains; and in
Zeiglerand Grosscup's Heart of the Alleghanies, etc. Some manuscript contributions to the library
of the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah— now unfortunately mislaid— show his interest in
Cherokee linguistics.
> sey] YONAGUSKA L63
Ilr was a prophel and reformer as well a~ a chief. When about
sixty years of age be had a severe sickness, terminating in a trance,
dui'ing which his people mourned him as dead. At the end of twent}
four hours, however, he awoke to consciousness and announced thai he
hail been to the spirit world, where he had talked with friends who
had gone before, and with God, who had sent him hark witli a message
to the Indians, promising to call him again at a later time. From
that day until his death his words were Listened to as those of our
inspired. He had been somewhat addicted to liquor, but now. on the
recommendation of Thomas, not only quit drinking himself. hut organ
ized his tribe into a temperance society. To accomplish this he called
his people together in council, and. after clearly pointing out to them
the serious effect of intemperance, in an eloquent speech that moved
some of his audience to tears, he declared that God had permitted him
to return to earth especially that he might thus warn his people and
banish whisky from among them. He then had Thomas write out a
pledge, which was signed first by the chief and then by each one of the
council, and from that time until after his death whisky was unknown
among the East Cherokee.
Although frequent pressure was brought to bear to induce him and
bis people to remove to the West, he firmly resisted every persuasion,
declaring that the Indians were safer from aggression among their
locks and mountains than they could ever be in a land which the while
man could find profitable, and that the Cherokee could he happy only
in the country w here nature had planted him. While counseling peace
and friendship with the white man, he held always to his Indian faith
and was extremely suspicious of missionaries. On one occasion, after
the first Bible translation into the Cherokee language and alphabet,
some one brought a copy of Matthew from New Echota, hut Yona-
guska would not allow it to he read to his people until it had first been
read to himself. After listening to one or two chapters the old chief
dryly remarked: "Well, it seems to be a good book — strange that the
white people are not better, after having had it so long."
He died, aged about eighty, in April. 1839, within a year after the
Removal. Shortly before the end he had himself carried into the
townhouse on Soeo. of which he had supervised the building, where,
extended on a couch, he made a last talk to his people, commend-
ing Thomas to them as their chief and again warning them earnestly
against ever leaving their own country. Then wrapping his blanket
around him. he quietly lay hack and died. He was buried beside
Soco. about a mile below the old Macedonia mission, with a rude
mound of stones to mark the spot. He left two wives and consid-
erable property, including an old negro slave named Cudjo, who was
devotedly attached to him. One of his daughters. Kata'Ista. still sur-
104 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
vives, and is the last conservator of the potter's art among the East
Cherokee. 1
Yonaguska had succeeded in authority to Yane'gwa, "Big-bear,"
w ho appears to have been of considerable local prominence in his time,
but wlio.se name, even with the oldest of the band, is now but a mem-
ory. He was among the signers of the treaties of 1798 and 1805, and
by the treaty of L819 was confirmed in a reservation of 640 acres as
one of those living within the ceded territory who were "believed to
be persons of industry and callable of managing their property with
discretion," and who had made considerable improvements on the
tracts reserved. This reservation, still known as the Big-bear farm,
was on the western bank of Oconaluftee, a few miles above its mouth,
and appears to have been the same afterward occupied by Yonaguska. 2
Another of the old notables among the East Cherokee was Tsunu'la-
hufi'ski, corrupted by the whites to Junaluska, a great w T arrior, from
whom the ridge west of YVayncsville takes its name. In early life he
was known as (Ifir'kala'skiV 1 On the outbreak of the Creek war
in 1813 he raised a party of warriors to go down, as he boasted, "to
exterminate the Creeks.'" Not meeting with complete success, he
announced the result, according to the Cherokee custom, at the next
dance after his return in a single word, (htxiiiu'lilhilngiji', "I tried, but
could not," given out as a cue to the song leader, who at once took it
as the burden of his song. Thenceforth the disappointed warrior was
known as Tsunu'lahufi'ski, "'One who tries, but fails." He distinguished
himself at the Horseshoe bend, where the action of the Cherokee
decided the battle in favor of Jackson's army, and was often heard to
say after the removal: "If I had known that Jackson would drive us
from our homes, I would have killed him that day at the Horseshoe."
He accompanied the exiles of 1838, but afterward returned to his old
home; he was allowed to remain, and in recognition of his serv-
ices the state legislature, by special act, in 1847 conferred upon
him the right of citizenship and granted to him a tract of land in fee
simple, but without power of alienation. 4 This reservation was in the
Cheowa Indian settlement, near the present Robbinsville, in Graham
county, where he died about the year 185S. His grave is still to be
seen just outside of Robbinsville.
1 The facts concerning Yonaguska are based on the author's personal information obtained from
Colonel Thomas, supplemented from conversations with old Indians. The date of his death ami his
approximate age are taken from the Terrell roll. He is also noticed at length in Lanman's Letters from
the Alleghany Mountains, 1848, and in Zeigler and Grosseup's Heart of the Alleghanies, 1883. The
trance which, according to Thomas and Lanman, lasted about one day, is stretched by the last-named
authors to fifteen .lays, with the whole 1,200 Indians marching and countermarching around the
sleeping b< dy '.
° The name in the treaties occurs as Yonahequah (1798), Yohanaqua (1805), and Yonah (1819).—
Indian Treaties, pp. 82, 123, 268; Washington, 1837.
; The name refers to something habitually falling from a leaning position.
* Act quoted in Report of Indian Commissioner for 1895, p. 636, 1896.
TEMPORARY INCORPORATION OF CATAWBA L65
As illustrative of his shrewdne&s it is t < > 1 < I thai he once tracked a
little Indian girl to Charleston, South Carolina, where she had been
carried by kidnappers and sold as a slave, and regained her freedom by
proving, from experl microscopic examination, that her hair had none
of the negro characteristics. 1
Christianity was introduced among the Kituhwa Cherokee shortly
before the Removal through Worcester and Boudinot's translation of
Matthew, first published at New Echota in L829. In the absenceof
missionaries the book was read by the Indians from house to house.
After the Removal a Methodist minister. Reverend Ulrich Keener,
began to make visits for preaching at irregular intervals, and was fol-
lowed several years later by Baptist workers. 2
In the fall of 1839 the C lissioner of Indian Affairs reported
that the East Cherokee had recently expressed a desire to join their
brethren in the West, but had been deterred from so doing by the
unsettled condition of affairs in the Territory. He states that " thej'
have a right to remain or to go," hut that as the interests of others
are involved in their decision they should decide without delay/'
In L840 about one hundred Catawba, nearly all that were left of the
tribe, being dissatisfied with their condition in South Carolina, moved
up in a body and took up their residence with the Cherokee. Latent
tribal jealousies broke out. however, and at their own request nego-
tiations were begun in 1848, through Thomas and others, for their
removal to Indian Territory. The effort being without result, they
.soon after began to drift back to their own homes, until, in 1852, there
were only about a dozen remaining among the Cherokee. In 1890
only one was left, an old woman, the widow of a Cherokee husband.
She and her daughter, both of whom spoke the language, were expert
potters according to the Catawba method, which differs markedly from
that of the Cherokee. There are now two Catawba women, both mar-
ried to Cherokee husbands, living with the tribe, and practicing their
native potter's art. While residing among the ( Jherokee, the ( 'atawba
acquired a reputation as doctors and leaders of the dance. 1
On August 6, 1846, a treaty was concluded at Washington with the
representatives of the Cherokee Nation west by which the rights of
the East Cherokee to a participation in the benefits of the New Echota
treaty of L835 were distinctly recognized, and provision was made for
a final adjustment of all unpaid and pending claims due under that
treaty. The right claimed by the Hast Cherokee to participate in the
The facta concerning Junaluska are from the author's information obtained from i tolonel Tl m*.
i 'aptain James Terrell, and Cherokee informants.
- Author's information from Colonel rh as.
'Commissioner Crawford, November25, Report <>( Indian Commission! i
•Author's informiitic.n from Colonel Thomas, Captain Terrell, and Indian sources; Commissi rW.
Medill, Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 399, 1848; i lommissioner Orlando Broun. Report of Indian
Commissioner for 1849, p. 14, 1850.
166 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
benefits of the New Echota treaty, although not denied by the gov-
ernment, had been held to be conditional upon their removal to the
West. 1
In the spring of L848 the author. Lanman, visited the East Chero-
kee and has left an interesting account of their condition at the time,
together with a description of their ballplays, dances, and customs
generally, having been the guest of Colonel Thomas, of whom he
speaks as the guide, counselor, and friend of the Indians, as well as
their business agent and chief, so that the connection was like that
existing between a father and his children. He puts the number of
Indians at about sou Cherokee and 100 Catawba on the "Quallatown"
reservation — the name being in use thus early — with '200 more Indians
residing in the more westerly portion of the state. Of their general
condition he says:
About three-fourths of the entire population can read in their own language, ami,
though the majority of them understand English, a very few can speak the language.
They practice, to a considerable extent, the science of agriculture, ami have acquired
such a knowledge of the mechanic arts as answers them for all ordinary purposes,
for they manufacture their own clothing, their own ploughs, and other farming uten-
sils, their own axes, and even their own guns. Their women are no longer treated as
slaves, hut as equals; the men labor in the fields and their wives are devoted entirely
to household employments. They keep the same domestic animals that are kept by
their white neighbors, and cultivate all the common grains of the country. They
are probably as temperate as any other class of people on the face of the earth, honest
in their business intercourse, moral in their thoughts, words, and deeds, anil distin-
guished for their faithfulness in performing the duties of religion. They are chiefly
Methodists and Baptists, and have regularly ordained ministers, who preach to them
on every Sabbath, and they have also abandoned many of their mere senseless super-
stitions. They have their own court and try their criminals by a regular jury.
Their judges and lawyers are chosen from among themselves. They keep in order
the public roads leading through their settlement. By a law of the state they have
a right to vote, but seldom exercise that right, as they do not like the idea of being
identified with any of the political parties. Excepting on festive days, they dress
after the manner of the white man, but far more picturesquely. They live in small
log houses of their own construction, ami have everything they need or desire in the
way of food. They are, in fact, the happiest community that I have yet met with
in this southern country. -
Among the other notables Lanman speaks thus of Sala'li, "Squirrel,"
a born mechanic of the band, who died only a few years since:
He is quite a young man and has a remarkably thoughtful face. He is the black-
smith of his nation, and with some assistance supplies the whole of Quallatown with
all their axes and plows; but what is more, he has manufactured a number of very
superior rifles and pistols, including stock, barrel, and lock, ami he isalso the builder
of grist mills, which grind all the corn which his people eat. A specimen of his
workmanship in the way of a rifle may be seen at the Patent Office in Washington,
where it was deposited by Mr. Thomas; and I believe Salola is the first Indian who
' Syllepsis of the treaty, etc., in Royee, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology,
pp. 300-313,1888; see also ante, ].. lis.
: Lanman, Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, pp. 94-95, 1849.
EAST CHEROKEE CENSUS — 1848 167
ever manufactured an entire gun. But when it is remembered thai he nevei
a particle of education in any of the mechanic arts but is entirely self taught, his
attainments must be considered truly remarkable.'
On July 29, 1848, Congress approved an art for taking a census of
all those Cherokee who bad remained in North Carolina after the
Removal, and who still resided east of the Mississippi, in order that
their share of the "removal and subsistence fund' 1 under the New
Echota treaty might !><■ set aside for them. A sum equivalent to
s.v:. :',:'.' «^ at the same time appropriated for each one. or his repre
sentative, to be available for defraying the expenses of bis remoi a] to
the Cherokee Nation west and subsistence there for one year whenever
he should elect so to remove. Any surplus over such expense was tc
be paid to him in cash after his arrival in the west. The whole amount
thus expended was to be reimbursed to the Government from the gen-
eral fund to the credit of the Cherokee Nation under the terms of the
treaty of New Echota. In the meantime it was ordered that to each
individual thus entitled should be paid the accrued interest on this per
capita sum from the date of the ratification of the New Echota treaty
(May 23, L836), payment of interest at the same rate to continue
annually thereafter.-' In accordance with this act a census of the Cher-
okee then residing in North Carolina. Tennessee, and Georgia, was
completed in the fall of 1848 by .1. C. Mullay, making the whole num-
ber 2,133. On the basis of this enrollment several payments were
made to them by special agents within the next ten years, one being
a pet-capita payment by Alfred Chapman in 1851-52 of unpaid claims
arising under the treaty of New Echota and amounting in the aggre-
gate to $197,534.50, the others being payments of the annual interest
upon the •• removal and subsistence fund" set apart to their credit in
I 848. In the accomplishment of these payments two other enrollments
were made by D. W. Siler in 1851 and by Chapman in 1852, the last
being simply a corrected revision of the Siler roll, and neither vary-
ing greatly from the Mullay roll. 3
Upon the appointment of Chapman to make the per capita payment
above mentioned, the Cherokee Nation west had filed a protest against
the payment, upon the double ground that the East Cherokee had for-
feited their right to participation, and furthermore that their census
was believed to lie enormously exaggerated. As a matter of fact the
number first reported by Mullay was only 1.517. to which so many
1 Lanman, Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, p. 111.
quoted in "The United States of America it. William II. Thomas cf al."\ also Royce, Cher-
okee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p 313, 1888. In the earlier notices the terms ' N'orth
Carolina Cherokee " ami ■■ Eastern Cherokee " are used synonymou ginal fugitives were
all in North Carolina.
'See Royce, op. ■ it-, pp. 313-314; Commissioner II- Price, Report of Ind
1884 Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 195, 1898; also references bj Commissioner W. Medill,
Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 399, 1848; ami Report of Indian Commissioner tor 1855, p, j i i 1856.
168 MYTHS OF THE CHEKOKEE [eth.ann.19
were subsequently added as to increase the number by more than 600.'
A census taken by their agent, Colonel Thomas, in 1N41. gave the
number of East Cherokee (possibly only those in North Carolina
intended) as L,220, 2 while a year later the whole number residing in
North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia was officially esti-
mated at from l.ooo to L,200. 3 It is not the only time a per capita
payment has resulted in a sudden increase of the census population.
In L852 (Capt.) James \V. Terrell was engaged by Thomas, then in
the state senate, to take charge of his store at Qualla, and remained
associated with him and inclose contact with the Indians from then until
after the close of the war. assisting, as special United States agent, in
the disbursement of the interest payments, and afterward as a Con-
federate officer in the organization of the Indian companies, holding a
commission as captain of Company A, Sixty-ninth North Carolina
Confederate infantry. Being of an investigating bent. Captain Terrell
was led to give attention to the customs and mythology of the Cher-
okee, and to accumulate a fund of information on the subject seldom
possessed by a white man. He still resides at Webster, a few miles
from the reservation, and is now seventy -one years of age.
In 1855 Congress directed the per capita payment to the East Cher-
okee of the removal fund established for them in 1848, provided that
North Carolina should first give assurance that they would be allowed
to remain permanently in that state. This assurance, however, was
not given until 1S66, a^nd the money was therefore not distributed,
but remained in the treasury until 1875, when it was made applicable
to the purchase of lands and the quieting of titles for the benefit of
the Indians. 4
From 1855 until after the civil war we find no official notice of the
East Cherokee, and our information must be obtained from other
sources. It was, however, a most momentous period in their history.
At the outbreak of the war Thomas was serving his seventh consec-
utive term in the state senate. Being an ardent Confederate sym-
pathizer, he was elected a delegate to the convention which passed the
secession ordinance, and immediately after voting in favor of that
measure resigned from the senate in order to work for the southern
canst". As he was already well advanced in years it is doubtful if his
effort would have gone beyond the raising of funds and other supplies
but for the fact that at this juncture an effort was made by the Con
federate General Kirby Smith to enlist the East Cherokee for active
service.
The agent sent for this purpose was Washington Morgan, known to
the Indians as A'ganst&'ta, son of that Colonel Gideon Morgan who
i Royce, Cherokee Nation, op. eit., p. 313 and note.
- Report of tin- Indian Commissioner, pp. 459-460, ,1845.
3 Commissioner Crawford, Report of Indian Co
4 Royce, op. cit.. p. 314,
THE THOM \- LEGION 1 69
had commanded the Cherokee at the Horseshoe bend. By virtue of
his Indian blood and historic ancestry he was deemed the most fitting
emissary for the purpose. Early in 1862 be arrived among the
Cherokee, and by appealing to old-time memories so aroused the war
spirit among them that a large number declared themselves ready to
follow wherever he led. Conceiving the question at issue in the war
to be one that did not concern the Indians, Thomas had discouraged
their participation in it and advised them to remain at home in quiet
neutrality. Now. however, knowing Morgan's reputation for reckless
daring, he became alarmed at the possible result to them of such
leadership. Forced either to see them go from his own protection or
to lead them himself, he chose the latter alternative and proposed to
them to enlist in the Confederate legion which he was about to organize.
His object, as he himself has stated, was to keep them out of danger
so far as possible by utilizing them as scouts and home guards through
the mountains, away from the path of the large armies. Nothing of
this was said to the Indians, who might not have Keen satisfied with
such an arrangement. Morgan went back alone and the Cherokee
enrolled under the command of their white chief. '
The "Thomas Legion," recruited in 1862 by William H. Thomas for
the Confederate service and commanded by him as colonel, consisted
originally of one infantry regiment of ten companies (Sixty-ninth
North Carolina Infantry), one infantry battalion of six companies, one
cavalry battalion of eight companies (First North Carolina Cavalry
Battalion), one field battery (Light Battery) of 103 officers and men.
and one company of engineers; in all about 2.800 men. The infantry
battalion was recruited toward the close of the war to a full regiment
of ten companies. Companies A and B of the Sixty ninth regiment
and two other companies of the infantry regiment recruited later
were composed almost entirely of East Cherokee Indians, most of the
commissioned officers being white men. The whole number of Chero-
kee thus enlisted was nearly four hundred, or about every able-bodied
man in the tribe. 8
In accordance with Thomas's plan the Indians were employed chiefly
as scouts and home guards in the mountain region along the Tennessee-
Carolina border, where, according to the testimony of Colonel String-
1 Tin- history of the events leading to the organization of the "Thomas Legion " is chiefly man the
author's conversations with Colonel Thomas himself, corroborated and supplemented from other
sources. In the words of Thomas, " If it had nol been for the Indians I would not have been in the
war."
-This is believed i" be i correct statement of the strength and make-up of tin- Thomas Legion,
Owing !■■ i in- Imperfection of the records and the absence of reliable memoranda among the surviv-
ing officers, no two accounts exactly coincide. The mil given in the North Carolina Confederate
Roster, handed in by captain Terrell, assistant quartermaster, was compiled early in the war and
- i tice "f tlu' engineer company "i "i the second Infantry regiment, which Included tun
[ndian companies, The information therein contained is supplemented Er :onversations
and personal letter laptain Terrell, and from letters and newspaper articles by Lieutenant Colonel
Stringfleld of the Sixty-ninth. Another statement isgivenin Mrs Avery's sketch of Colonel n as
in thi Sorth Carolina University Magazine for May, 1899.
170 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ass.1S
field, "they did good work and service for the South." The most
important engagement in which they were concerned occurred at
Baptist yap, Tennessee, September 15, 1862, where Lieutenant Astu'-
gata'ga, "a splendid specimen of Indian manhood," was killed in a
charge. The Indians were furious at his death, and before they could
he restrained they scalped one or two of the Federal dead. For this
action ample apologies were afterward given by their superior officers.
The war. in fact, brought out all the latent Indian in their nature.
Before starting to the front every man consulted an oracle stone to
learn whether or not he might hope to return in safety. The start
was celebrated with a grand old-time war dance at the townhouse on
Soco, and the same dance was repeated at frequent intervals there-
after, the Indians being "painted and feathered in good old style,"'
Thomas himself frequently assisting as master of ceremonies. The
ballplay, too, was not forgotten, and on one occasion a detachment of
Cherokee, left to guard a bridge, became so engrossed in the excite-
ment of the game as to narrowly escape capture by a sudden dash of
the Federals. Owing to Thomas's care for their welfare, they suffered
but slightly in actual battle, although a number died of hardship and
disease. When the Confederates evacuated eastern Tennessee, in the
winter of 1863-64, some of the white troops of the legion, with one or
two of the Cherokee companies, were shifted to western Virginia, and
by assignment to other regiments a few of the Cherokee were present
at the final siege and surrender of Richmond. The main body of the
Indians, with the rest of the Thomas Legion, crossed over into North
Carolina and did service protecting the western border until the close
of the war, when they surrendered on parole at Waynesville, North
Carolina, in May, 1865, all those of the command being allowed to
keep their guns. It is claimed by their officers that they were the
last of the Confederate forces to surrender. About fifty of the Cher-
okee veterans still survive, nearly half of whom, under conduct of
Colonel Stringfield, attended the Confederate reunion at Louisville,
Kentucky, in 1900, where they attracted much attention. 1
In 1863, by resolution of February lii, the Confederate House of
Representatives called for information as to the number and condition
of the Fast Cherokee, and their pending relations with the Federal
government at the beginning of the war, with a view to continuing
these relations under Confederate auspices. In response to this
inquiry a report was submitted by the Confederate commissioner of
Indian affairs, S. S. Scott, based on information furnished by Colonel
Thomas and Captain James W. Terrell, their former disbursing agent,
showing that interest upon the " removal and subsistence fund " estab-
i Personal Information from Colonel W. H. Thomas, LieutenanW3olonel W. W. Stringfield Captain
James W. Terrell, Chief N. J. Smith (first sergeant Company B), and others, with other details from
Moore's (Confederate) Roster of North Carolina Troops, iv; Raleigh, 1S82: also list of survivors in
1890, bj Carrington, in Eastern Band of Cherokees, Extra Bulletin of Eleventh Census, p. _i. 1892.
CHEROKEE IN UNION \i:\IY 171
lished in 1848 had been paid annually up to and including the year
L859, at the rate of $3.20 per capita, or an aggregate, exclusive of
disbursing agent's commission, of $4,838.40 annually, based upon the
original Mullay enumeration of 1,517.
Upon receipt of this report it was enacted by the Confederate con-
gress thai the sum of $19,352.36 be paid the East Cherokee to cover
the interest period of four years from Maj 23, L860, to May 23, L864.
In this connection the Confederate commissioner suggested that the
payment be made in provisions, of which the Indians were then
greatly in need, and which, if the payment were made in cash, they
would be unable to purchase, on account of the general scarcity. He
adds that, according to his information, almost every Cherokee capable
of bearing arms was then in the Confederate service. The roll fur-
nished by Captain Terrell is the original .Mullay roll corrected to May.
L860, no reference being made to the later Mullay enumeration (2,133),
already alluded to. There i- no record to show that the payment thus
authorized was made, and as the Confederate government was then in
hard -traits it i> probable that nothing further was done in the matter.
In submitting his statement of previous payments, Colonel Thomas,
their former agent, adds:
As the North Carolina Cherokeea have, like their brethren west, taken up arms
against the Lincoln government, it is not probable that any further advances of
interest will be made bj that government to any portion of the Cherokee tribe. I
also enclose a copy of the act of July 29, 1848, so far as relates t<. the North Carolina
Cherokees, and a printed explanation of their rights, prepared by me in 1851, and
submitted to the attorney-general, and his opinion thereon, which may not be alto-
gether uninteresting to those who feed an interest in knowing something of the
history of the Cherokee tribe of Indians, whose destiny is so closely identified with
that of the Southern Confederacy. 1
In a skirmish near Bryson City (then Charleston). Swain county.
North Carolina, about a year after enlistment, a small party of
Cherokee -perhaps a dozen in number — was captured by a detach-
nient of Union troops and carried to Knoxville, where, having become
dissatisfied with their experience in the Confederate service, they
were easily persuaded to go over to the Union side. Through
the influence of their principal man. Digane'skl, several other- were
induced to desert to the Union army, making about thirty in all. As a
part of the Third North Carolina Mounted Volunteer Infantry, they
served with the Union forces in the same region until the (dose of the
war. when they returned to their homes to find their tribesmen so
bitterly incensed against them that for some time their lives were in
danger. Eight of these are -till alive in 1900. 2
One of these Union Cherokee had brought back with him the small-
1 Thomas-Terrell manuscript East Cherokee roll, with accompanying letters, 1864 (Bur.Am.Eth.
archives I.
'Personal information from Colonel VV H.Thomas, Captain J.W.Terrell, Chief S J.Smith, and
others; see also Carrington Eastern Band of Cherokees, Extra Bulletin of Eleventh Census, p 21 1892,
172 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ass.19
pox from sin infected camp near Knoxville. Shortly after his return
he became sick and soon died. As the characteristic pustules had not
appeared, the disease seeming to work inwardly, the nature of his
sickness was not at first suspected- smallpox having been an unknown
disease among the Cherokee for nearly a century — and his funeral was
largely attended. A week later a number of those who had been pres-
ent became sick, and the disease was recognized by Colonel Thomas as
smallpox in all its virulence. It spread throughout the tribe, this
being in the early spring of 1866, and in spite of all the efforts of
Thomas, who brought a doctor from Tennessee to wait upon them,
more than one hundred of the small community died in consequence.
The fatal result was largely due to the ignorance of the Indians, who.
finding their own remedies of no avail, used the heroic aboriginal
treatment of the plunge bath in the river and the cold-water douche,
which resulted in death in almost every case. Thus did the war bring
its harvest of death, misery, and civil feud to the East Cherokee. 1
Shortly after this event Colonel Thomas was compelled by physical
and mental infirmity to retire from further active participation in the
affairs of the East Cherokee, after more than half a century spent in
intimate connection with them, during the greater portion of which
time he had been their most trusted friend and adviser. Their affairs
at once became the prey of confusion and factional strife, which con-
tinued until the United States stepped in as arbiter.
In 1868 Congress ordered another census of the East Cherokee, to
serve as a guide in future payments, the roll to include only those
persons whose names had appeared upon the Mullay roll of 1848 and
their legal heirs and representatives. The work was completed in the
following year by S. H. Sweatland, and a payment of interest then
due under former enactment was made by him on this basis. 8 '"In
accordance with their earnestly expressed desire to be brought under
the immediate charge of the government as its wards." the Congress
which ordered this last census directed that the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs should assume the same charge over the East Cherokee as over
other tribes, but as no extra funds were made available for the pur-
pose the matter was held in abeyance. 3 An unratified treaty made
this year with the Cherokee Nation west contained a stipulation that
any Cherokee east of the Mississippi who should remove to the Chero-
kee nation within three years should be entitled to full citizenship and
privileges therein, but after that date could be admitted only by act
of the Cherokee national council.*
After the retirement of Thomas, in the absence of any active
1 Author's information from Colonel Thomas and others. Various informants have magnified the
number of deaths to several hundred, but the estimate here given, obtained from Thomas, is proba-
bly more reliable.
- ■ Koyee. Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 314, 1888.
3 Commissioner F. A. Walker, Report of Italian Commissioner, p. 25, 1872.
'Koyee, op. eit., p. 353.
ADJUSTMENT OF TITLES 1873-76 17.".
governmental supervision, need was felt of some central authority.
( )n December 9, L86S, a general council of the East ( !herokee assembled
a i ( !heowa, in Graham county, North Carolina. took preliminary steps
toward the adoption of a regular form of tribal government under
a constitution. N. J. Smith, afterward principal chief, \\a> clerk
of the council. The new government was formally inaugurated on
December 1. L870. It provided for a first and a second chid' to
serve for a term of two years, minor officers to serve one year, and
an annual council representing each Cherokee settlement within the
stateof North Carolina. Ka'lahu', "All-bones," commonly known to the
whites as Flying-squirrel or Sawnook (Sawanu'gi), was elected chief.
A new constitution was adopted five years later, by which the chief's
term of office was tixed at four years.'
The status of the lands held by the Indians had now become a matter
of serious concern. As has been stated, the deeds had been made out
by Thomas in his own name, as the state laws at that time forbade Indian
ownership of real estate. In consequence of his losses during the
war and his subsequent disability, the Thomas properties, of which
the Cherokee lands were technically a part, had become involved, so
that the entire estate had passed into the hands of creditors, the most
important of whom. William Johnston, had obtained sheriff's deeds in
1869 for all of these Indian lands under three several judgments against
Thomas, aggregating $33,887. 1 1. To adjust the matter so as to secure
title and possession to the Indians. Congress in 1870 authorized suit to
he brought in their name for the recovery of their interest. This suit
was begun in May. Isj:;. in the United States circuit court for western
North Carolina. A year later the matters in dispute were submitted
by agreement to a board of arbitrators, whose award was continued by
the court in November. 1S74.
The award finds that Thomas had purchased with Indian funds a
tract estimated to contain 50,000 acres on Oconaluftee river and Soco
creek, and known as the Qualla boundary, together with a number of
individual tracts outside the boundary; that the Indians were Mill
indebted to Thomas toward the purchase of the Qualla boundary
lands for the sum of $18,250, from which should be deducted $6,500
paid by them to Johnston to release titles, with interest to date of
award, making an aggregate of $8,486, toe-ether with a further sum
of $2,478, which had been intrusted to Terrell, the business clerk and
assistant of Thomas, and by him turned over to Thomas, as creditor of
the Indians, under power of attorney, this latter sum. with interest to
date of award, aggregating $2,697.89; thus leaving a balance due from
the Indians to Thomas or his Legal creditor. Johnston, of $7,066.11.
The award declares that on account of the questionable manner in
> Constitution, etc., quoted in Carrington, Eastern Band of Cherokees, Extra Bulletin Eleventh
Census, pp. ls-ju, 1892; author's personal information
174 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
which the disputed lands had been bought in by Johnston, he should
be allowed to hold them only as security for the balance due him until
paid, and that on the payment of the said balance of $7,066.11, with
interest at 6 per cent from the date of the award, the Indians should
be entitled to a clear conveyance from him of the legal title to all the
lands embraced within the Qualla boundary. 1
To enable the Indians to clear off this lien on their lands and for
other purposes, Congress in LsT'> directed that as much as remained
of the •■ removal and subsistence fund" set apart for their benefit in
1848 should be used •"in perfecting the titles to the lands awarded to
them, and to pay the costs, expenses, and liabilities attending their
recent litigations, also to purchase and extinguish the titles of any
white persons to lands within the general boundaries allotted to them
by the court, and for the education, improvement, and civilization of
their people." In accordance with this authority the unpaid balance
and interest due Johnston, amounting to $7,212.76, was paid him in
the same year, and shortly afterward there was purchased on behalf of
the Indians some fifteen thousand acres additional, the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs being constituted trustee for the Indians. For the
better protection of the Indians the lands were made inalienable except
by assent of the council and upon approval of the President of the
United States. The deeds for the Qualla boundary and the 15.UO0
acre purchase were executed respectively on October 9, 1876, and
August 11, 1880. 2 As the boundaries of the different purchases were
but vaguely defined, a new survey of the whole Qualla boundary and
adjoining tracts was authorized. The work was intrusted to M. S.
Temple, deputy United States surveyor, who completed it in 1876, his
survey maps of the reservation being accepted as the official standard. 3
The titles and boundaries having been adjusted, the Indian Office
assumed regular supervision of East Cherokee affairs, and in June.
1875, the first agent since the retirement of Thomas was sent out in
the person of W. C. McCarthy. He found the Indians, according to
his report, destitute and discouraged, almost without stock or farming
tools. There were no schools, and very few full-bloods could speak
English, although to their credit nearly all could read and write their
own language, the parents teaching the children. Under his authority
a distribution was made of stock animals, seed wheat, and farming
tools, and several schools were started. In the next year, however,
iSee award of arbitrators. Rufus Barringer, John H. Dillard, and T. Ruffln, with ftdl statement, in
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians against W. T. Thomas et al. H. R. Ex. Doc. 128, 53d Cong., 2d sess.,
1894; summary in Royce, Cherokee Nation, Fifth Ann. Kep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 315-318, 1888.
-s<e Royce, op. Cit., pp. 315-318; Commissioner T. .1. Morgan. Report of Indian Commissioner,
p. xxix, 1890. The final settlement, under the laws of North Carolina, was not completed until 1894.
'Royce, op. cit., pp. 315-318; Carrington, Eastern Band of Cherokees, with map of Temple survey,
Extra Bulletin of Eleventh Census, 1892.
INVITATION FROM WESTERN BAND 188] 1 7. r )
the agency was discontinued and the educational interests of i he band
turned over to the state school superintendent. 1
In the meantime Ka'lalnV had been succeeded as chief by Lloj'd K.
Welch i l>a 'si giya'gl), an educated mixed-blood of Cheowa, who served
about five years, dying shortly after his reelection to a second term
(48). He made a good record by his work in reconciling the various
faction- which had sprung up after the withdrawal of the guiding influ-
ence of Thomas, and in defeating the intrigues of fraudulent while
claimants and mischief makers. Shortly before his death the ( rovern-
ment, through Special Agent John A. Sibbald, recognized his authority
as principal chief, together with the constitution which had been
adopteil by the band under his auspices in 1ST5. N. J. Smith (Tsa'-
ladihi'). who had previously served as clerk of the council, was elected
to his unexpired term and continued to serve until the fall of L890. 8
We find no further official notice of the East Cherokee until L881,
when Commissioner Price reported that they were still without agent
or superintendent, and that so far as the Indian Office was concerned
their affairs were in an anomalous and unsatisfactory condition, while
factional feuds were adding to the difficulties and retarding the prog-
ress of the band. In thespringof that year a visiting delegation from
the Cherokee Nation west had extended to them an urgent imitation
to remove to Indian Territory and the Indian Office had encouraged
the project, with the result that lt',1 persons of the band removed dur-
ing the year to Indian Territory, the expense being borne by the
Government. Others were represented as being desirous to remove,
and the Commissioner recommended an appropriation for the purpose,
but as Congress failed to act the matter was dropped. 3
The neglected condition of the Ea.st Cherokee having been brought
to the attention of those old-time friends of the Indian, the Quakers,
through an appeal made in their behalf by members of that society
residing in North Carolina, the Western Yearly Meeting, of Indiana,
volunteered to undertake the work of civilization and education. On
May 31, L881, representatives of the Friends entered into a contract
with the Indians, subject to approval by the Government, to establish
and continue among them for ten years an industrial school and other
common schools, to lie supported in part from the annual interest of
the trust fund held by the Government to the credit of the East Chero-
kee and in part by funds furnished by the Friends themselves. Through
the efforts of Barnabas C. Hobbs, of the Western Yearly Meeting, a
yearly contract to the same effect was entered into with the Commis-
! Report of Agent W. C. McCarthy, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 343-344, 1875; and Report of
Indian Commissione, pp. 118-119, 1876.
'Author's personal information: sue also Carrington, Eastern Band of Cherokees; Zeigler and
Grosscup, Heart .,i the AUeghanies, pp. 35-36, 1883.
'Commissioner H.Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. Ixiv-lxv, 1881, and Report of Indian
Commissioner, pp. Ixix-lxx, 1882; see also ante, p. 151.
17o MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
sioner of Indian Affairs later in the same year, and was renewed by
successive commissioners to cover the period of ten years ending June
30, 1892, when the contract system was terminated and the Govern-
ment assumed direct control. Under the joint arrangement, with some
aid at the outset from the North Carolina Meeting, work was begun
in 1881 by Thomas Brown with several teachers sent out by the Indiana
Friends, who established a small training school at the agency head-
quarters at Cherokee, and several day schools in the outlying settle-
ments. He was succeeded three years later by H. W. Spray, an expe-
rienced educator, who, with a corps of efficient assistants and greatly
enlarged facilities, continued to do good work for the elevation of the
Indians until the close of the contract system eight years later. 1 After
an interregnum, during which the schools suffered from frequent
changes, he was reappointed as government agent and superintendent
in 1898, a position which he still holds in 1901. To the work con-
ducted under his auspices the East Cherokee owe much of what they
have to-day of civilization and enlightenment.
From some travelers who visited the reservation about this time we
have a pleasant account of a trip along Soco and a day with Chief
Smith at Yellow Hill. They describe the Indians as being so nearly
like the whites in their manner of living that a stranger could rarely
distinguish an Indian's cabin or little cove farm from that of a white
man. Their principal crop was corn, which they ground for them-
selves, and they had also an abundance of apples, peaches, and plums,
and a few small herds of ponies and cattle. Their wants were so few
that they had but little use for money. Their primitive costume had
long been obsolete, and their dress was like that of the whites, except-
ing that moccasins took the place of shoes, and they manufactured
their own clothing by the aid of spinning-wheels and looms. Finely
cut pipes and well-made baskets were also produced, and the good
influence of the schools recently established was already manifest in
the children. 8
In 1882 the agency was reestablished and provision was made for
taking a new census of all Cherokee east of the Mississippi, Joseph
G. Hester being appointed to the work. 3 The census was submitted
as complete in June, 1881, and contained the names of 1,881 persons in
North Carolina, 758 in Georgia, 213 in Tennessee, 71 in Alabama, and
33 scattering, a total of 2,956. ' Although this census received the
approval and certificate of the East Cherokee council, a large portion
of the band still refuse to recognize it as authoritative, claiming that
a large number of persons therein enrolled have no Cherokee blood.
'See Commissioner T.J.Morgan, Report of [ndian Commissioner, pp. 141-14.S, 1892; author's per-
sonal information from B. ('. Hobbs, Chief N*. .1. Smith, ami others. For further notice of school
groM Hi see also Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. 426-427, 1897.
2 Zeigler and Grosscup. Heart of the Alleghanies, pp. 36-42, 1883.
•^Commissioner H. Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. Ixix-lxx, 1882.
* Kvport of Indian Commissioner, pp. li-lii, ls.s4.
SUIT AGAINST WESTERN CHEROKEE 1883 8G 177
The East Cherokee had never ceased to contend for a participation
in the rights and privileges accruing to the western Nation under
treaties with the Government. In L882 a special agenf hud been ap-
pointed to investigate their claims, and in the following year, under
authority of Congress, the eastern hand of Cherokee brought suit in
the ( lourt of Claims against the Tinted States and the Cherokee Nation
west to determine its rights in the permanent annuity fund and other
trust funds held by the United States for the Cherokee Indians. 1 The
case was decided adversely t<> the eastern hand, first bj the Court of
Claim- in 1885, ! and finally, on appeal, by the Supreme Court on
March 1, lssti. that court holding in its decision that the Cherokee in
North Carolina had dissolved their connection with the Cherokee
Nation and ceased to he a part of it when they refused to accompany
the main body at the Removal, and that if Indians in North Carolina or
in any state east of the Mississippi wished to enjoy the benefits of the
common property of the Cherokee Nation in any form whatever they
must he readmitted to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation and comply
with its constitution and laws. In accordance with this decision the
agent in the Indian territory was instructed to issue no more resi-
dence permits to claimants tor Cherokee citizenship, and it was
officially announced that all persons thereafter entering that country
without consent of the Cherokee authorities would he treated as
intruders. 3 This decision, cutting off the East Cherokee from all
hope of sharing in any of the treaty benefits enjoyed by their western
kinsmen, was a sore disappointment to them all. especially to Chief
Smith, who had worked unceasingly in their behalf from the institu-
tion of the proceedings. In view of the result. Commissioner Atkins
strongly recommended, as the best method of settling them in perma-
nent home-, secure from white intrusion and from anxiety on account
of their uncertain tenure and legal status in North Carolina, that
negotiations be opened through government channels for their
readmission to citizenship in the Cherokee Nation, to he followed, if
successful, by the sale of their lands in North Carolina and their
removal to Indian Territory. 4
In order to acquire a more definite legal status, the Cherokee resid-
ing in North Carolina —being practically all those of the eastern
band having genuine Indian interests — became a corporate body
under the laws of the state in 1889. The act. ratified on March 11,
declares in its first section ••That the North Carolina or Eastern
Cherokee Indians, resident or domiciled in the counties of Jackson,
Swain. Graham, and Cherokee, he and at the same time are hereby
i Commissioner H. Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. Ixix-lxxi, i lian legisla-
tion," ibid., p. 214; Commissioner H. Price, Report of Indian Commissioner, pp. Ixv Ixvi, 1883.
* Commissioner J. I». e. Atkins, Report of Indian Commissioner, p. l\ *. 1885.
'Same commissioner. Ke|».n .»i the Indian Commissioner, ]>. xlv, 1886; decision quoted by same
commissioner. Report of Indian Commissioner, p. lxxvii, l-s;
■Same commissioner, Report "i the Indian Commissioner, p. li, 1886; reiterated by him in Report
lxxvii.
[9 Kin — oi 12
17tS MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
created and constituted a body politic and corporate under the name,
style, and title of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, with all the
rights, franchises, privileges and powers incident and belonging to
corporations under the laws of the state of North Carolina. 1
On August 2, 1893, ex-Chief Smith died at Cherokee, in the fifty-
seventh year of his life, more than twenty of which had been given
to the service of his people. Nimrod Jarrett Smith, known to the
Cherokee as Tsa'ladihi", was the son of a halfbreed father by an Indian
mother, and was born near the present Murphj 1 , Cherokee county.
North Carolina, on January 3. 1S3T. His earliest recollections were
thus of the miseries that attended the flight of the refugees to the
mountains during the Removal period. His mother spoke very little
English, but his father was a man of considerable intelligence, having
acted as interpreter and translator for Reverend Evan Jones at the old
Valleytown mission. As the hoy grew to manhood he acquired a fair
education, which, aided by a commanding presence, made him a per-
son of influence among his fellows. At twenty -five years of age he
enlisted in the Thomas Legion as first sergeant of Company B, Sixty-
ninth North Carolina (Confederate) Infantry, and served in that capacity
till the close of the war. He was clerk of the council that drafted the
first East Cherokee constitution in 186S, and on the death of Principal
Chief Lloyd Welch in 1880 was elected to fill the unexpired term,
continuing in office by successive reelections until the close of 1891, a
period of about twelve years, the longest term yet filled by an incum-
bent. As principal chief he signed the contract under which the school
work was inaugurated in 1881. For several years thereafter his
duties, particularly in connection with the suit against the western
Cherokee, required his presence much of the time at ATashington,
while at home his time was almost as constantly occupied in attending
to the wants of a dependent people. Although he was entitled under
the constitution of the band to a salary of five hundred dollars per year,
no part of this salary was ever paid, because of the limited resources of
his people, and only partial reimbursement was made to him, shortly
before his death, for expenses incurred in official visits to Washington.
With frequent opportunities to enrich himself at the expense of his
people, he maintained his honor and died a poor man.
In person Chief Smith was a splendid specimen of physical man-
hood, being six feet four inches in height and built in proportion,
erect in figure, with flowing black hair curling down over his shoulders.
a deep musical voice, and a kindly spirit and natural dignity that
never failed to impress the stranger. His widow — a white woman —
and several children survive him. 2
■See act in full, Report of Indian Commissioner, vol. I, pp. 680-681, 1891.
• From author's personal acquaintance; see also Zeigler and Grosscup, Heart of the Alleghanies,
pp. 38-39, Issb; iVgent .1. L. Holmes, in Repiort of Indian Commissioner, p. 160, 1S85; Commissioner
T. .1. Morgan, Report of Indian Commissioner, p. 142, 1892; Moore, Roster of the North Carolina
Troops, iv, 1882.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL X
CHIEF N. J. SMITH iTSALADIHI'
hookey] PRESENT CONDITION L79
In isi»-t the long-standing litigation between the Eas< Cherokee
and a number of creditors and claimants to Indian land-, within and
adjoining the Qualla boundary was finally settled bj a compromise
by which the several white tenants and claimants within the boundary
agreed to execute a quitclaim and vacate on paymenl to them by the
Indians of sums aggregating $24,552, while for another disputed
adjoining tract of 33,000 acres the United Stales agreed to pay, for
the Indian-, at the rate of $1.25 per acre. The necessarj Government
approval having been obtained, Congress appropriated a sufficienl
amount for carrying into effect the agreement, thus at last completing
a perfect and unincumbered title t<> all the lands claimed by the
Indians, with the exception of a few outlying tracts of comparative.
unimportance. 1
In 1895 the Cherokee residing- in North Carolina upon the reserva
tion and in the outlying settlements were officially reported to number
1.47'.'. ' A vear later an epidemic of grippe spread through the band,
with the result that the census of L897 shows but 1,312, s among those
who died at this time being Big-witch (Tskil-e'gwa), the oldest man of
the band, who distinctly remembered the Creek war. and Wadi'yahi,
the last old woman who preserved the art of making double-walled
baskets. In the next year the population had recovered to 1,351.
The description of the mode of living' then common to most of the
Indians will apply nearly as well to-day:
While they are industrious, these people are not progressive farmers ami have
learned nothing of modern methods. The same crops are raised continuously until
the soil will yield no more or is washed away, when new ground is cleared or broken.
The value of rotation ainl fertilizing has not yet been discovered or taught. . . .
That these people can live at all upon the products of their small farms is due to
the extreme simplicity of their food, dress, and manner of living. The typical
house is of logs, is about fourteen by sixteen feet, of one room, just high enough for
the occupants to stand erect, with perhaps a small loft for the storage of extras.
The roof is of split shingles or shakes. There is no window, the open door furnish-
ing what 1 i s_r 1 1 1 is required. At .me end of the house is the fireplace, with outside
chimney of stones or sticks chinked with clay. The furniture is simple and cheap.
An iron pot, a hake kettle, a coffeepot and mill, small table, and a few cups, knives,
and spoons arc all that is needed. These, with .me or two bedsteads, homemade, a
few pillows and quilts, with feather mattresses for « inter covering, as well as for the
usual purpose, constitute the principal house possessions. For outdoor work there
is an ax, hoe, ami shovel plow. A wagon or cart may 1 wned, hut i- uol essi u-
tial. The outfit is inexpensive and answers every purpose. The usual food is bean
bread, with coffee. In the fall chestnut bread is also used. Beef is seldom eaten.
but pork is highly esteemed, and a considerable number of hogs are kept, running
wild and untended in summer. 4
By the most recent official count, in 1900, the East Cherokee resid-
ing in North Carolina under direct charge of the agent and included
I ommissioner D.M. Browning, Report of Indian Commissioner for 1894, pp. 81-82, 1 >'.>">: also Agent
T. W . Potti i. ibid . p 96
= Agent T. W. Potter, Report of Indian Commissioner for 1895, p. 887, 1896.
: C Hart, Report of Indian Commissioner, p 208,1897
'Agent J. C. Hart. Report of Indian Commissi r, pp. 218-219, 1898.
180 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.axn.19
within the act of incorporation number 1,376, of whom about L,100
are on the reservation, the rest living farther to the west, on Nanta-
hala, Cheowa, and Hiwassee rivers. This does not include mixed-
bloods in adjoining states and some hundreds of unrecognized claim-
ants. Those enumerated own approximately 100,000 acres of
land, of which 83,000 are included within the Qualla reservation
and a contiguous tract in Jackson and Swain counties. They receive
no rations or annuities and are entirely self-supporting, the annual
interest on their trust fund established in 1848, which has dwindled to
about $23,000, being applied to the payment of taxes upon their unoc-
cupied common lands. From time to time they have made leases of
timber, gold-washing, and grazing privileges, but without any great
profit to themselves. By special appropriation the government sup-
ports an industrial training school at Cherokee, the agency head-
quarters, in which 170 pupils are now being boarded, clothed, and
educated in the practical duties of life. This school, which in its work-
ings is a model of its kind, owes much of its usefulness and high
standing to the efficient management of Prof. H. W. Spray (Wilsini'),
already mentioned, who combines the duties of superintendent and
agent for the band. His chief clerk, Mr James Blythe (Diskwa''m,
"Chestnut-bread"), a Cherokee by blood, at one time tilled the posi-
tion of agent, being perhaps the only Indian who has ever served in
such capacity.
The exact legal status of the East Cherokee is still a matter of dis-
pute, they being at once wards of the government, citizens of the
United States, and (in North Carolina) a corporate body under state
laws. They pay real estate taxes and road service, exercise the voting
privilege, 1 and are amenable to the local courts, but do not pay poll
tax or receive any pauper assistance from the counties; neither can
they make free contracts or alienate their lands (19). Under their
tribal constitution they are governed by a principal and an assistant
chief, elected for a term of four years, with an executive council
appointed by the chief, and sixteen councilors elected by the various
settlements for a term of two years. The annual council is held in
October at Cherokee, on the reservation, the proceedings being in
the Cherokee language and recorded by their clerk in the Cherokee
alphabet, as well as in English. The present chief is Jesse Keid
(Tse'si-Ska'tsi, '-Scotch Jesse"), an intelligent mixed-blood, who tills
the office with dignity and ability. As a people they are peaceable and
law-abiding, kind and hospitable, providing for their simple wants by
their own industry without asking or expecting outside assistance.
Their fields, orchards, and fish traps, with some few domestic animals
and occasional hunting, supply them with food, while by the sale of
i At the recent election in November, 1900, they were debarred by the local polling officers from
either registering or voting, and the matter is now being contested.
hooneyJ PRESENT CONDITION 1S1
ginseng and other medicinal plants gathered in the mountains, with
fruit and honey of their own raising, they procure what additional
supplies they need from the traders. The majority are fairly com-
fortable, far above the condition of most Indian tribes, and hut little,
if any. behind their white neighbors. In literary ability they may
even be -aid to surpass them, as in addition to the result of nearly
twenty years of school work among the younger people, nearly all the
men and some of the women can read and write their own language.
All wear civilized costumes, though an occasional pair of moccasins
is seen, while the women find means to gratify the racial love of
color in the wearing of red bandanna kerchiefs in place of bonnets. The
older people still cling to their ancient rites and sacred traditions, hut
the dance and the ballplay wither and the Indian day is nearly spent.
Ill— NOTES TO THE HISTORICAL SKETCH
(1) Tribal synonymy (page 15): Very few Indian tribes are known to us under
the names by which they call themselves. One reason for this is the fact that the
whites have usually heard of a tribe from its neighbors, speaking other languages,
before coming upon the tribe itself. Many of the popular tribal names were origi-
nally nicknames bestowed by. neigh boring tribes, frequently referring to some peculiar
custom, and in a large number of cases would be strongly repudiated by the people
designated by them. As a rule each tribe had a different name in every surrounding
Indian language, besides those given by Spanish, French, Dutch, or English settlers.
YCm'uiyii' — This word is compounded from yunirl (person) and yd (real or prin-
cipal). The assumption of superiority is much in evidence in Indian tribal names;
thus, the Iroquois, Delawares, and Pawnee call themselves, respectively, Ofiwe-
honwe, Leni-lenape', and Tsariksi-tsa'riks, all of which maybe rendered "men of
men," "men surpassing other men," or "real men."
KUu'hwagl — This word, which can not be analyzed, is derived from Kitu'hwa, the
name of an ancient Cherokee settlement formerly on Tuckasegee river, just above
the present Bryson City, in Swain county, North Carolina. It is noted in 1730 as
one of the "seven mother towns" of the tribe. Its inhabitants were called Ani'-
Kltu'hwagl (people of Kituhwa), and seem to have exercised a controlling influence
over those of all the towns on the waters of Tuckasegee and the upper part of Little
Tennessee, the whole body being frequently classed together as Ani'-KItu'hwagl.
The dialect of these towns held a middle place linguistically between those spoken
to the east, on the heads of Savannah, and to the west, on Hiwassee, Cheowah, and
the lower course of Little Tennessee. In various forms the word was adopted by
the Delawares, Shawano, and other northern Algonquian tribes as a synonym for
Cherokee, probably from the fact that the Kituhwa people guarded the Cherokee
northern frontier. In the form Cuttawa it appears on the French map of Vaugondy
in 1755. From a similarity of spelling, Schoolcraft incorrectly makes it a synonym
for Catawba, while Brinton incorrectly asserts that it is an Algonquian term, fanci-
fully rendered, ' ' inhabitants of the great wilderness. ' ' Among the western Cherokee
it is now the name of a powerful secret society, which had its origin shortly before the
War of the Rebellion.
Cherokee — This name occurs in fully fifty different spellings. In the standard recog-
nized form, which dates back at least to 1708, it has given name to counties in North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, within the ancient territory of the
tribe, and to as many as twenty other geographic locations within the United States.
In the Eastern or Lower dialect, with which the English settlers first became famil-
iar, the form is Tsa'ragl', whence we get Cherokee. In the other dialects the form
is Tsa'lagK It is evidently foreign to the tribe, as is frequently the case in tribal
names, and in all probability is of Choctaw origin, having come up from the south
through the medium of the Mobilian trade jargon. It will be noted that De Soto,
whose chroniclers first use the word, in the form Chalaque, obtained his interpreters
from the Gulf coast of Florida. Fontanedo, writing about the year 1575, mentions
other inland tribes known to the natives of Florida under names which seem to be
182
mooney] TRIBAL SYNONYMY L83
of Choctaw origin; For instance, the Canogacole, interpreted "wicked ] ■• •< >j ■ I. •. " ' the
final part being apparently the ( Ihoctaw word okla or ogvla, "people", which appears
also in Pascagoula, Bayou Goula, and Pensacola. Shetimasha, Atakapa, and probably
Biloxi, are also Choctaw names, although the tribes themselves are of other origins.
As the Choctaw held much of the Gulf coast and were the principal traders of that
regi it was natural that explorers landing among them should adopt their names
for the more remote tribes.
The name seems t" refer to the fact that the tribe occupied a rave country. In the
"Choctaw Leksikon " of Allen Wright, 1880, page 87, we find ckolick, a noun, signify-
ing a hole, cavity, pit, chasm, etc., and as an adjective signifying hollow, fn the man-
uscript Choctaw dictionary of Cyrus Byington, in the library of the Bureau of
American Ethnology, we find chiluk, noun, a hole, cavity, hollow, pit, etc, with a
statement that in its usual application it means a cavity or hollow, and not a hole
through anything. A.- an adjective, the same form is given as signifying hollow,
having a hole, as iii chiluk, a hollow tree: aboha chiluk, an empty house; chiluk
chukoa, to enter a hole. Other noun forms given are chulukund achiluk in thesingu-
lar and chilukoa in the plural, all signifying hole, pit, or cavity. Verbal tonus are
chilukikbi, to make a hole, and chilukba, to open and form a fissure.
In agreement with the genius of the Cherokee language tin- root form of the tribal
name takes nominal or verbal prefixes according to its connection with the rest of
the sentence, and is declined, or rather conjugated, as follows: Singular — first per-
son. tsi-Tsa'l&ffl, I (am) a Cherokee: second person, hi-Tsa'l&gl, thou art a Chero-
kee; third person, a-lia'Ulgi, he is a Cherokee. Dual — first person, dsti-'Dsa'l&gl,
we two are Cherokee; second person, sli-Tsa'l&gt, you two are Cherokee; third
person, ani'-Tba'l&gi, they two are Cherokee. Plural — first person, atsi-Taa/Vigl,
we i several i are Cherokee; second person, liiixi-Tsn'liii/i. xt m (several) are Chero-
kee; third person, anV- Tsa/l&ffi, they (several) are Cherokee. It will be noti 1
that the third person dual and plural are alike.
Oyata' ge'ronon' , etc. — The [roquois (.Mohawk I form is given by Hewitt as O-yata'-
ge'ronofi', of which the root is yala, cave, o is the assertive prefix, ge is the locative at,
and romotV is the tribal suffix, equivalent to ( English I -to or people. The word, which
has several dialectic forms, signifies "inhabitants of the cave country," or "cave-
country people," rather than "people who dwell in caves," as rendered by Schoolcraft
The same radix yata occurs also in the Iroquois name for the opossum, which is a
burrowing animal. As is well known, the Allegheny region is peculiarly a cave coun-
try, the caves having been used by the Indians for burial and shelter purposes, as is
proved by numerous remains found in them. It is probable that the Iroquois simply
translated the name (Chalaque) current in the South, as we find is the case in the
West, where the principal plains tribes are known under translations of the same
names in all the different languages. The Wyandot name for the Cherokee,
Wataiyo-ronon', and their Catawba name, ManteraiV. both seem to refer to coming
out of the ground, and may have been originally intended to convey the same idea
of cave ] pie.
Rickahockan — This name is used by the German explorer. Lederer, in 1670, as the
name of the people inhabiting the i noun tains to the southwest of the Virginia settle-
ments. On his map he puts them in the mountains on the southern head streams
of Roanoke river, in western North Carolina. He states that, according to his Indian
informants, the Rickahockan lived beyond the mountains in a land of great waves,
which he interpreted to mean the sea shore i ! I, but it is more likely that the Indians
were trying to convey, by means of the sign language, the idea of a succession of
mountain ridges. The name was probably of Powhatan origin, and is evidently
identical with Rechahecrian of the Virginia chronicles of about the same period, the
/• in the latter form being perhaps a misprint. It may he connected with Righka-
hauk, indicated mi Smith's map of Virginia, in 1607, as the name of a town within the
184 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
Powhatan territory, and still preserved in Rockahock, the nameot an estate on lower
Pamunkey river. We have too little material of the Powhatan language to hazard
an interpretation, bui it may possibly contain the root of the word for sand, which
appears as lekawa, nikawa, negaw, rigawa, rekwa, etc, in various eastern Algonquian
dialects, whence Rockaway (sand), and Recgawawank (sandy place) . The Pow-
hatan form, as given by Strachey, iaracawh (sand). H e gives also rocoyhook (otter),
reihcahahcoik, hidden under a cloud, overcast, rirhthime or reilieoun (a comb), and
rich ii-h (to divide in halves).
TalligevA — As Brinton well says: "No name in the Lenape' legends has given rise to
more extensive discussion than this." On Oolden's map in his "History of the Five
Nations," 1727, we find the "Alleghens" indicated upon Allegheny river. Heckewel-
der, who recorded the Delaware tradition in 1819, says: "Those people, as I was told,
calledthemselvesTalligeu or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, agentleman
who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks several of their languages,
is of the opinion that they were not called Talligewi, but Alligevvi; and it would
seem that he is right from the traces of their name which still remain in the country,
the Allegheny river and mountains having indubitably been named after them. The
Delawares still call the former Alligewi Sipu (the river of the Alligewi)" — Indian
Nations, p. 48, ed. 1876. Loskiel, writing on the authority of Zeisberger, says that
the Delawares knew the whole country drained by the Ohio under the name of
Alligewinengk, meaning "the land in which they arrived from distant places, " basing
his interpretation upon an etymology compounded from talli or alii, there, icku, to
that place, and ewak, they go, with a locative final. Ettwein, another Moravian
writer, says the Delawares called "the western country" Alligewenork, meaning a
warpath, and called the river Alligewi Sipo. This definition would make the word
come from palliton or attiton, to fight, to make war, ewak, they go, and a locative, i. e.,
"they go there to fight." Trumbull, an authority on Algonquian languages, derives
the river name from v<ulik, good, best, hanne, rapid stream, and sipu, river, of which
rendering its Iroquois name, Ohio, is nearly an equivalent. Rafinesque renders Tal-
ligewi as "there found," from talli, there, and some other root, not given (Brinton,
Walam Olum, pp. 229-230, 1885).
It must be noted that the names Ohio and Alligewi (or Allegheny) were not
applied by the Indians, as with us, to different parts of the same river, but to the
whole stream, or at least the greater portion of it from its head downward. Although
Brinton sees no necessary connection between the river name and the traditional
tribal name, the statement of Heckewelder, generally a competent authority on Dela-
ware matters, makes them identical.
In the traditional tribal name, Talligewi or Alligewi, wi is an assertive verbal suf-
fix, so that the form properly means " he is a Tallige," or "they are Tallige." This
comes very near to Tsa'lagi', the name by which the Cherokee call themselves, and
it may have been an early corruption of that name. In Zeisberger' s Delaware dic-
tionary, however, we find wuloh or walok, signifying a cave or hole, while in the
"Walam Olum" we have oligonunk rendered "at the place of caves," the region
being further described as a buffalo land on a pleasant plain, where the Lenape',
advancing seaward from a less abundant northern region, at last found food (Walam
Olum, pp. 194-195). Unfortunately, like other aboriginal productions of its kind
among the northern tribes, the Lenape chronicle is suggestive rather than complete
and connected. With more light it may be that seeming discrepancies would disap-
pear and we should find at last that the Cherokee, in ancient times as in the historic
period, were always the southern vanguard of the Iroquoian race, always primarily
a mountain people, but with their flank resting upon the Ohio and its great tribu-
taries, following the trend of the Blue ridge and the Cumberland as they slowly
gave way before the pressure from the north until they were finally cut off from the
parent stock by the wedge of Algonquian invasion, but always, whether in the north
TRIBAL SYNONYM? 1 85
or in t lie south, keeping their distinctive title among the tribes as the "] pie of the
cave country."
As the Cherokee have occupied a prominent place in history for so long a period
their name appears in many synonyms and diverse spellings. The following are
among the principal of these:
SYNONYMS
T~\ i u.i' (plural. Ani'-Tsa'l&gl') . Proper form in the Middle and Western Cherokee
dialects.
TSA RAGl'. Proper form in the Eastern or Lower Cherokee dialect.
Achalaque. Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 1847 (incorrectly quoting Garcilaso).
Chalakee. Nuttall, Travels, 124, L821.
Chalaque. Gentleman of Elvas, 1557; Publications of Hakluyt Society, IX, 60, 1851.
/•■•■<. Barcia, Ensayo, 335, 1723.
Charakeys. Homann heirs' map,about 17.">0.
Charikees. Document of 1718, ./Me Rivers, South Carolina, 55, 1856.
Charokees. Governor Johnson, 1720, fide Rivers, Early History South Carolina, 93,
1874.
( 'heelah . Barton, New Views, xli v, 1 798.
Ckeerake. Adair, American Indians, 226, 1775.
Cheerakee. Ibid., 137.
Cheerague's. Moore, 1704, in Carroll, Hist. Colls. South Carolina, n, 576, 1836.
i 'In f'/v./.v ,-. Ross I'.'i, 1776, in Historical Magazine, 2d series, n, 218, 1867.
Chel-a-ke. Long, Expedition to Rocky Mountains, n, lxx, 1823.
Chetakees. Gallatin, Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc, n, 90, 1836.
Chelaques. Nuttall, Travels, 247, 1821.
Chelekee. Keane, in Stanford's Compendium, 506, 1878.
Chellokee. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, n, 204, 1852.
Cheloculgee. White, Statistics of Georgia, 28, RS49 (given as plural form of Creek
name).
Chelokees. Gallatin, Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc, n, 104, 1836.
Cheokees. Johnson, 1772, in New York Doc. Col. Hist., vm, 314, 1857 (misprint
for Cherokees).
flu raguees. Coxe, Carolina, n, 1741.
Cherakees. Ibid., map, 1741.
Clu rnki.i. Chanvignerie, 1736, fide Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, in, 555, 1853.
Clu raguees. Coxe, Carolana, 13, 1741.
Cheraguis. Penicaut, 1699, in Margry, v, 404, 1883.
Cherickees. Clarke, 1739, in New York Doc. Col. Hist, vi, 148, 1855.
Cherikee. Albany conference, 1742, ibid., 218.
Cherokee. Governor Johnson, 1708, in Rivers, South Carolina, 238, 1856.
Cherookees. Croghan, 1760, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls., 4th series, ix, 372, 1871.
Cheroquees. Campbell, 1761, ibid., 41'i.
Cherrackees. Evans, 1755, in Gregg, Old Cheraws, 15, 1867.
Cherrokees. Treaty of 1722, fide Drake, Book of Indians, bk. 4, 32, 1848.
( 1i, rrykees. Weiser, 1748, fide Kauffman, Western Pennsylvania, appendix, 18, 1851.
Chirakues. Randolph, 1699, in Rivers, South Carolina, 449, 1856.
( hirokys. Writer about 1825, Annales de la Prop, de la Foi, n, 384, 1841.
ChoraMs. Document of 1748, New York Doc. Col. Hist., x, 143, 1858.
Chreokees. Pike, Travels, 173, 1811 (misprint, transposed).
Shanaki. Gatschet, Caddo MS, Bureau Am. Ethn., 1882 (Caddo name).
Shan-nock. Matey, Red River. 273, 1854 I Wichita name).
Shannaki. Gatschet, Fox MS, Bureau Am. Ethn., 1882 (Fox name: plural form,
Shannakiak).
Shayage. Gatschet, Raw MS, Bur. Am. Ethn., Is7s i Raw name).
\ Rafinesque, in Marshall, Kentucky, i, 23, 1824.
Zulocans. I
186 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
Sulluggoes. Coxe, Carolana, 22, 1741.
TcdUce. Gatschet, TonkawaMS, Bur. Am. Ethn., 1882 (Tonkawa name, ChaUke).
TceroUec. Gatechet, Wichita Ms, Bur. Am. Ethn., 1882 (Wichita name, Cherokiih).
Tchatakei). La Salle, L682, in Margry, n, 1!<7, 1S77 (misprint).
TialaHes. Gallatin, Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., n, 90, 1836.
Tsallakee. Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 310, 1847.
Tsa-16-kee. Morgan, Ancient Society, 113, 1878.
Tschirokesen. Wrangell, Ethn. Nachrichten, xni, 1839 (German form).
TMlahM. Grayson, Creek MS, Bur. Am. Ethn., 1885 (Creek name; plural form,
Tstilgdl'gn or Tstdgtil'gi — Mooney).
Tzerrickey. Urlsperger, fide Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, i, 26, 1884.
Tzulukis. Rafinesque, Am. Nations, i, 123, 1836.
Znllli-illis.
Zulocans.
' I Heekewelder, 1819, Indian Nations, 48, reprint of 1876 (traditional Dela-
allhtEwi. > ware name . singular, Talliqe? or AUigef (see preceding explanation).
Alligewi. )
Alleg. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v, 133, 1855.
AUegans. Colden, map, 1727, fide Schoolcraft, ibid., in, 525, 1853.
Allegeui. Schoolcraft, ibid., v, 133, 1855.
Alleghans. Colden, 1727, quoted in Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 147, 1847.
Alleghanys. Rafinesque, in Marshall, Kentucky, i, 34, 1824.
Alleghens. Colden, map, 1727, fide Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 305, 1847.
Allegvri. Squier, in Beach, Indian Miscellany, 26, 1877.
Alii. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, v, 133, 1855.
Attighewis. Keane, in Stanford's Compendium, 500, 1878.
Talagans. Rafinesque, in Marshall, Kentucky, i, 28, 1824.
Talega. Brinton, Walam Olum, 201, 1885.
TaVagewy. Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, n, 36, 1852.
Tallegwi. Rafinesque, fide Mercer, Lenape Stone, 90, 1885.
TaMgwee. Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 310, 1847.
Tallike. Brinton, Walam Olum, 230, 1885.
Kiti-'hwagi (plural, Ani'-JCUu'hwagl. See preceding explanation).
< 'uttawa. Yaugondy, map, Partie de l'Amerique, Septentrionale 1755.
Gatohua. l
Oattochwa. \ Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, i, 28, 1884.
Katowa (plural, Katowagi). )
Ketawaugas. Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal Tennessee, 233, 1823.
Kittuwa. Brinton, Walam Olum, 16, 1885 ( Delaware name) .
Kuttoowauw. Aupaumut, 1791, fide Brinton, ibid., 16 (Mahican name) .
Oyata'ge'honoS'. Hewitt, oral information (Iroquois (Mohawk) name. See preced-
ing explanation) .
Ojadagochroene. Livingston, 1720, in New York Doc. Col. Hist., v, 567, 1855.
<hiihide<„,irns. Bleeker, 1701, ibid., iv, 918, 1854.
Oyadackuehramo. Weiser, 1753, ibid., vi, 795, 1855.
Oyadagahroenes. Letter of 1713, ibid., v, 386, 1855 (incorrectly stated to be the Flat-
heads, i. e., either Catawbas or Choctaws) .
Oyadage'oho. Gatechet, Seneca MS, 1882, Bur. Am. Ethn. (Seneca name).
0-ya-da/-go-(H/io. Morgan, League of Iroquois, 337, 1851.
Oyaudah. Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 448, 1847 (Seneca name) .
I'lrnlii'-i/o-ro'-no. Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 28, 1884 (Wyandot name).
Uyada. Ibid. (Seneca name).
We-yau-dahi Schoolcraft, Notes on Iroquois, 253, 1847.
Wu-tai-yo-ro-nofl'\ Hewitt, Wyandot .Ms. 1893, Bur. Am. Ethn. (Wyandot name).
mooney] MOBILIAN TRADE LANGUAGE 187
Rickahockans. Lederer, 1672, Discoveries, 26, rt-print of L891 (see preceding
explanation i.
Rickohockans. Map. ibid.
ariam. Drake, Book of Indians, hook 4, l'l\ 1848 (from old Virginia docu-
ments !.
crians. Rafinesque, in Marshall, Kentucky, i, 36, L824.
M'vs i ri. \\'. Gatechet, Catawba Ms. 1881, Bur. Am. Ethn. (Catawba name. See
preceding explanation |.
„ rPotier, Racines Huronnea et Grammaire, MS. 17.M (Wyandot
names. I lie first, according to Hewitt, is equivalent in
OCHIETARIKOSXOX. ., , °
l "ndge, or mountain, people ).
T'kwe"-tah-e-i'-ha-nk. Beauchamp, in Journal Am. Folklore, v, 225, 1892 (given as
the t taondaga name and rendered, " people of a beautiful red color" |.
C '■(, viole(?). Fontanedo, about 1575, Memoir, translated in French Hist. Colls.,
ii, 2-i", 1875 (rendered "wicked people").
(2) Mobilian trade LANGU iGE (page 16): This trade jargon, based upon Choctaw,
but borrowing also from all the neighboring dialects and even from the more north-
ern Algonquian languages, was spoken and understood among all the tribes of the Gulf
states, probably as far west as Matagorda bay and northward along both hanks of
the Mississippi to the Algonquian frontier about the entrance of the Ohio. It was
called Mobilienne by the French, from Mobile, the great trading center of the i fulf
region. Along the Mississippi it was sometimes known also as the Chickasaw trade
language, the Chickasaw being a dialect of the Choctaw language proper. Jeffreys,
in 1761, compares this jargon in its uses to the lingua franca of the Levant, and it
wa.- evidently l>y the aid of this intertribal medium that I>e Soto's interpreter from
Tampa hay could converse with all the tribes they met until they reached the Missis-
sippi. Some of the names used hy Fontanedo about 1575 for the tribes northward
from Appalachee bay seem to be derived from this source, as in later times were the
names of the other tribes of the Gulf region, without regard to linguistic affinities,
including among others the Taensa, Tunica, Atakapa, and Shetimasha, representing
as many different linguistic stocks. In his report upon the southwestern tribes in
1805, Sibley says that the "Mobilian" was spoken in addition to their native lan-
guages by all the Indians who had come from the east side of the Mississippi.
Among those so using it lie names the Alabama, Apalachi, Biloxi, Chactoo, Pacana,
Pascagula, Taensa. and Tunica. Woodward, writing from Louisiana more than fifty
years later, says: '■There is yet a language the Texas Indians call the Mobilian
tongue, that ha.- been the trading language of almost all the tribes that have inhab-
ited the country. I know white men that now speak it. There is a man now living
near me that is fifty years of age, raised in Texas, that speaks the language well. It
is a mixture of Creek, Choctaw. Chickasay, Xetches [Natchez], and Apelash [Apa-
lachi]" — Reminiscences, 79. For further information see also Gatschet, (reek
Migration Legend, and Sibley, Report.
The Mobilian trade jargon was not unique of its kind. In America, as in other
parts Of the world, the common necessities of intercommunication have resulted in
the format] f several such mongrel dialects, prevailing sometimes over wide
area-. In some cases, also, the language of a predominant tribe serves as the com-
mon medium for all the tribes of a particular region. In South America we find the
lingoa geral, based upon the Tupi' language, understood tor everyday purposes by
all the tribes of the immense central region from Guiana to Paraguay, including
almost the w hole Amazon basin. On the northwest coast w> find the well-known
"Chinook jargon," which take> it- name from a -mall tribe formerly residing at the
mouth of the Columbia, in common use among all tie- tribes iron. California far up
MYTHS OF THE CHEKOKEE
[ETH. ANN. 19
into Alaska, and eastward to the great divide of the Rocky mountains. In the
southwest the Navaho-Apache language is understood by nearly all the Indians of
Arizona and New Mexico, whil i the plains the Sioux language in the north and
the Comanche in the south hold almost the same position. In addition to these we
have also the noted "sign language," a gesture system used and perfectly understood
as a fluent means of communication among all the hunting tribes of the plains from
the Saskatchewan to the Rio Grande.
(3) Dialects (page 17): The linguistic affinity of the Cherokee and northern
lroquoian dialects, although now well established, is not usually obvious on the
surface, but requires a close analysis of words, with a knowledge of the laws of pho-
netic changes, to make it appear. The superficial agreement is perhaps most apparent
between the Mohawk and the Eastern (Lower) Cherokee dialects, as both of these
lack the labials entirely and use r instead of /. In the short table given below the
Iroquois words are taken, with slight changes in the alphabet used, from Hewitt's
manuscripts, the Cherokee from those of the author:
Mohawk
Cherokee (East-
ern)
person
ongwe'
yufiwl
fire
otsi'ra'
atsi'ra (atsi'la)
water
awen'
awa' (ami')
stone
onefiya'
nimviV
arrow
ka'non'
kiuil'
pipe
kanonnawefi'
kanun'nawu
hand (arm)
owe'ya"
uwa'yl
milk
unefi'ta"
unuii'tl
five
wlsk
hlskl
tobacco
[tcarhu - , Tuscarora]
tsarfl (tsalu)
fish
otcofi'ta'
u'tsutl'
ghost
o'skefma'
asgi'na
snake
ennatuii
i'nadu'
Comparison of Cherokee dialects
Eastern
(Lower)
Middle
Western
1 Upper)
fire
atsi'ra
atsi'la
atsi'la
water
awa'
ama'
ama'
dog
gi'rl'
gi'll'
gi'll'
hair
gitsu'
gitsft'
gitlu'
hawk
tsa'nuwa'
IsVnmvn'
tlft'nuwa'
leech
tsanu'sl'
tsanu'sl'
tlanu'sl'
bat
tsa'weha'
tsa'meha'
tla'meha'
panther
tsuntu'tsl
tsuntu'tsl
ttuntu'tsl
jay
tsay'ku'
tsay'ku'
tlay'ku'
martin (bird)
tsutsu'
tsutsn'
tlutlti'
war-club
atasu'
atasu'
atasl'
heart
unahu'
unahu'
unahwl'
where?
ga'tsu
ga'tsfl
ha'tlu
how much?
hufigu'
hufigu'
hila'gu
key
stugi'stl
stugi'stl
stui'stl
I pick it up (long)
tslnigi'il
tslnigi'u
tsine'ii
my father
agida'ta
agida'ta
eda'ta
my mother
a'gitsl'
a'gitsl'
etsl'
my father's father
agini'sl
agini'sl
eni'sl
my mother's father
agidu'tti
agidu'td
edu'tO
mooney] IROQUOIAN MIGRATIONS 189
It will be noted that the Eastern and Middle dialects arc aboul the same, except-
ing for the change of I to r, and the entire absence of the labial m from the Eastern
dialect, while the Western differs considerably fr the others, particularly in the
greater frequency of the liquid J and the softening of the guttural g, the changes tend-
ing to render it the most musical of all the Cherokee dialects. It is also the stand-
ard literary dialect. In addition to these three principal dialects there are some
peculiar forms and expressions in use by a few individuals which indicate the former
existence of cue or more other dialects now too far extinct to be reconstructed. As
in most other tribes, the ceremonial forms used by the priestl I ate so filled with
archaic and figurative expressions as to !«■ almost unintelligible to the laity.
(4) Iroquoian nar.es and migrations (p. 17): The Iroquoian stock, taking its
name from the celebrated Iroquois confederacy, consisted formerly of from fifteen
to twenty tribes, speaking nearly as many different dialects, and including, among
others, the following:
Wyandot, or Huron. ~\
Tionontati, or Tobacco nation.
Attiwan'daron, or Neutral nation. \ Ontario, ( lanada.
Tohotaenrat.
Wenrorono.
Mohawk. |
Oneida.
Onondaga. > Iroquois, or Five Nations, New York.
( layuga.
Seneca. J
Erie. Northern t Mhio, etc.
Conestoga, or Susquehanna. Southern Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Nottoway. "I
Meherrim'.J S "»""'>'" Virginia.
Tnscarora. Eastern North Carolina.
Cherokee. Western Carolina, etc.
Tradition and history alike point to the St. Lawrence region as the early home
of this stock. Upon this point all authorities concur. Says Hale, in his paper on
Indian Migrations (p.4): "The constant tradition of the Iroquois represents their
ancestors a- emigrants from the region north of the Oreat lakes, where they dwelt in
early times with their Huron brethren. This tradition is recorded with much par-
ticularity by Cadwallader Colden, surveyor-general of New York, who in the early
part of the last century composed his well known 'History of the Five Nations.' It
is told in a somewhat different form by David { 'tisick. the Tnscarora historian, in his
'Sketchesof Ancient History of the Six .Nations,' and it is repeated by Mr. L. H.
Morgan in his now classical work. 'The League of the Iroquois,' for which he- pro-
cured his information chiefly among the Senecas. Finally, as we learn from the
narrative of the Wyandot Indian, Peter Clarke, in his 1 k entitled 'Origin ami Tra-
ditional History of the Wyandotts." the belief of the Hurons accords in this respect
with that of the Iroquois. Both point alike to the country immediately north of the
St. Lawrence, and especially to that portion of it lying east of Lake Ontario, as the
early home of the Huron-Iroquois nations." Nothing is known of the tradition- oi
the ( lonestoga or the Nottoway, hut the trail it inn of the Tnscarora. as given by Cusick
and other authorities, makes them a direct offsl ( from the northern [roquois, with
whom they afterward reunited. The traditions of the Cherokee also, as we have
seen, bring them from the north, thus npleting the cycle. "The striking fact has
become evident that the course of migration of the Huron-Cherokee family has been
from the northeast to the southwest — that is. from eastern Canada, on the Lower St.
Lawrence, to the mountains of northern Alabama. " — Hale, Indian Migrations, p. 11.
The retirement of the northern Iroquoian tribes from the St. Lawrence region was
190 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [cth.ann.19
due to the hostility of their Algonquian neighbors, by whom the Huronsand their
allies were forced to take refuge about Georgian hay and the head of Lake Ontario,
while the Iroquois proper retreated to central New York. In 1535 (artier found the
shores of the river from Quebec to Montreal occupied by anlroquoian people, but on
the settlement of the country seventy years later the same region was found in pos-
session of Algonquian tribes. The confederation of the five Iroquois nation-, probably
about the year 1540, enabled them to check the Algonquian invasion and to assume
the offensive. Linguistic and other evidence shows that the separation of the Chero-
kee from the parent stock must have far antedated this period.
(5) Waaam Ohm (p. 18): The name signifies "red score," from the Delaware
walam, "painted," more particularly "painted red." and <,hi,u. "a score, tally-
mark." The Walam Olum was first published in 1836 in a work entitled "The
American Nations." by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, a versatile and voluminous,
but very erratic, French scholar, who spent the latter half of his life in this country,
dying in Philadelphia in 1840. He asserted that it was a translation of a manuscript
hi the Delaware language, which was an interpretation of an ancient sacred metrical
legend of the Delawares, recorded in pictographa cut upon wood, obtained in 1820 by
a medical friend of his among the Delawares then living in central Indiana. He
says himself: "These actual olum were first obtained in 1820 as a reward for a
medical cure, deemed a curiosity, and were unexplicable. In 1822 were obtained
from another individual the soul's annexed thereto in the original language, hut no
one could be found by me able to translate them. I had therefore to learn the
language since, by the help of Zeisberger, Heckewelder, and a manuscript diction-
ary, on purpose to translate them, which I only accomplished in 1833." On account
of the unique character of the alleged Indian record and Rafinesque's own lack of
standing among his scientific contemporaries, hut little attention was paid to the
discovery until Brinton took up the subject a few years ago. After a critical sifting
of the evidence from every point of view he arrived at the conclusion that the
work is a genuine native production, although the manuscript rendering is faulty.
partly from the white scribe's ignorance of the language and partly from the Indian
narrator's ignorance of the meaning of the archaic forms. Brinton's edition (q. v. ),
published from Rafinesque's manuscript, gives the legend in triplicate form — picto-
graph, Delaware, and English translation, with notes and glossary, and a valuable
ethnologic introduction by Brinton himself.
It is not known that any of the original woodcut pictographs of the Walam Olum
arc now in existence, although a statement of Rafinesque implies that he had seen
them. As evidence of the truth of his statement, however, we have the fact that
precisely similar pictographic series cut upon birch bark, each pictograph represent-
ing a line or couplet of a sacred metrical recitation, are now known to be common
among the Ojibwa, Menomini, and other northern tribes. In 1762 a Delaware
prophet recorded his visions in hieroglyphics cut upon a wooden stick, ami about
the year 1S'_>7 a Kickapoo reformer adopted the same method to propagate a w\\
religion among the tribes. One of these "prayer sticks" is now in the National
Museum, being all that remains of a large basketful delivered to a missionary in
Indiana by a party of Kickapoo Indians in 1830 (see plate and description, pp. 665,
697 et seq. in the author's Ghost-dance Religion, Fourteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology ).
(6) Fish riyek (p. 18): NamsesiSipu I Heckewelder, Indian Nations, 49), or Namas-
sipi (Walam olum, p.l9S). Deceived by a slight similarity of sound. Heckewelder
makes this river identical with the Mississippi, but as Schoolcraft shows (Notes on
Iroquois, p. 316) the true name of the Mississippi is simply Misi-sipi, "great river,"
and "fish river" would lie a most inappropriate name for such a turbulent current,
where only the coarser species can live. The mere fact that there can be a question
of identity among experts familiar with Indian nomenclature would indicate that it
DK soro's ROUTE 191
was Qot one of the larger streams. Although Heckewelder makes the Uligewi, as ne
prefers to call them, Bee down the Mississippi after their final defeat, the Walam
Olum chronicle says only "all the Talega go south." It was probahly a gradual
withdrawal, rather than a sudden and concerted flight (see Hale, Indian Migra-
tions, pp. 19-22) .
(7) First ippeabance of whites (p. 19): ft is possible that this may refer t ■
of the earlier adventurers who coasted along the North Atlantic in the first decades
after the discovery of America, among whom were Sebastian Cabot, in 1498; Verra-
zano, in 1">l'4; and Gomez, in 1525. As these voyages were not followed up by per-
manent occupation of the country it is doubtful if they made any lasting impressii m
upon Indian tradition. The author lias chosen to assume, with Brinton and Rati-
nesque, that the Walam Olum reference is to the .settlement of the Dutch at New
York and the English in Virginia sunn after 1600.
(8) 1 > i Soto's route (p. 26): On May 30, 1539, Hernando de Soto, of Spain, with
600 armed men and 213 horses, landed at Tampa hay, on the west coast of Florida, in
search of gold. Alter more than four year- of hardship and disappointed wandering
from Florida to the great plains of the West and back again to the Mississippi, where
De Soto died and his body was consigned to the great river, 311 men, all that were
left of the expedition, arrived finally at Pdnuco, in Mexico, on September in. 1543.
For the history of this expedition, the most important ever undertaken by Spain
within eastern United State.-, v.e have four original authorities. First is the
brief, hut evidently truthful (Spanish) report of Biedma, an officer of tin' expedi-
tion, presented to the King in 1544. immediately after the return to Spain. Next
in order, hut of first importance for detail and general appearance of reliability, is
the narrative of an anonymous Portuguese cavalier of the expedition, commonly
known as the i lentleman of Elvas, originally published in the Portuguese language
in 1557. Xext comes the (Spanish) narrative of Garcilaso, written, hut not pub-
lished, in 1587. t'nlike the others, the author was not an eyewitness of what lie
describes, hut made up his account chiefly from the oral recollections of an old
soldier of the expedition more than forty years after the event, this information
being supplemented from papers written by two other soldiers of De Soto. Is might
he expected, the ( iarcilaso narrative, although written in flowery style, abounds in
exaggeration and trivial incident, and com]. ares unfavorably with the other accounts,
while probably giving more of the minor happenings. The fourth original account
is an unfinished (Spanish) report by Ranjel, secretary of tin- expedition, written
-o ,ii after reaching Mexico, and afterward incorporated with considerable change by
Oviedo, in his "Historia natural j general de las Indias." As this fourth narrative
remained unpublished until 1851 and has never been translated, it has hitherto been
entirely overlooked by the commentators, excepting Winsor, who notes it inciden-
tally. In general it agrees well with the Klvas narrative and throws valuable light
upon the history of the expedition.
The principal authorities, while preserving a general unity of narrative, differ
greatly in detail, especially in estimates of numbers and distances, frequentl} to such
an extent that it is useless to attempt to reconcile their different statements. In gen-
eral the Gentleman of Klvas is most moderate in his expression, while Biedma takes
a middle ground and Garcilaso exaggerates greatly. Thus the first named gives
De Soto 600 men. Hied ma make- the number 620, while Garcilaso says 1,000. At a
certain stage of the joumej the Portuguese Gentleman gives De Soto Tun Indian- as
escort, Biedma say- sou, while < rarcilaso makes it 8,000 It the battle of Ma\ ilia the
Klvas account gives is Spaniards and 2,500 Indians killed. Biedmasays 20 Spaniards
killed, without giving an estimate of the Indians, while Garcilaso ha- 82 Spaniards
and over 1 l.iioo Indians killed. In distances there is as great discrepancy. Thus
Biedma makes the distance from ( luaxule to Chiaha four days, Garcilaso has it six
days, and Elvas seven days. As to the length of an average day's march we find it
192 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ash.19
estimated all the way from "four leagues, more or less" (< rarcilaso | to " every day
seven or eight leagues" (Elvas). In another place the Elvas chronicler state- thai
they usually made five or six leagues a day through inhabited territories, but that in
crossing uninhabited regions — as that between Canasagua and Chiaha, they marched
every day as far as possible for fear of running out of provisions. One of the most
glaring discrepancies appears in regard to the distance between Chiaha and Coste.
Both the Portuguese writer and Garcilaso put Chiaha upon an island — a statement
which in itself is at variance with any present conditions, — but while the former
makes the island a fraction over a league in length the latter says that it was five
leagues long. The next town was Coste, which Garcilaso puts immediately at the
lower end of the same island while the Portuguese Gentleman represents it as seven
days distant, although he himself has given the island the shorter length.
Notwithstanding a deceptive appearance of exactness, especially in the Elvas and
Banjel narratives, which have the form of a daily journal, the conclusion is irresist-
ible that much of the record was made after dates had been forgotten, and the
sequence of events had become confused. Considering all the difficulties, dangers,
and uncertainties that constantly beset the expedition, it would be too much to expect
the regularity of a ledger, and it is more probable that the entries were made, not
from day to day, but at irregular intervals as opportunity presented at the several
resting places. The story must be interpreted in the light of our later knowledge of
the geography and ethnology of the country traversed.
Each of the three principal narratives has passed through translations and later
editions of more or less doubtful fidelity to the original, the English edition in some
cases being itself a translation from an earlier French or Dutch translation. English
speaking historians of the expedition have usually drawn their material from one or
the other of these translations, without knowledge of the original language, of the
etymologies of the Indian names or the relations of the various tribes mentioned, or
of the general system of Indian geographic nomenclature. One of the greatest errors
has been the attempl to give in every case a fixed local habitation to a name which
in some instances is not a proper name at all, ami in others is merely a descriptive
term or a duplicate name occurring at several places in the same tribal territory.
Thus Tali is simply the Creek word talua, town, and not a definite place name as
represented by a mistake natural in dealing through interpreters with an unknown
Indian language. Tallise and Tallimuchase are respectively "Old town" and "New
town" in Creek, and there can lie no certainty that the same names were applied to
the same places a century later. Canasagua is a corruption of a Cherokee name
which occurs in at least three other places in the old Cherokee country in addition
to the one mentioned in the narrative, and almost every old Indian local name
was thus repeated several times, as in the case of such common names as Short
creek, Whitewater, Richmond, or Lexington among ourselves. The fact that only
one name of the set has been retained on the map does not prove its identity with the
town of the old chronicle. Again such loose terms as "a large river," "a beautiful
valley," have been assumed to mean something more definitely localized than the
wording warrants. The most common error in translation has been the rendering
of the Spanish "despoblado" as "desert." There are no deserts in the Gulf states,
and the word means simply an uninhabited region, usually the debatable strip
between two tribes.
There have been many attempts to trace lie Soto's route. As nearly every historian
who lias written of the southern states lias given attention to this subject it is
unnecessary to enumerate them all. ( if some thirty works consulted by tin- author,
in addition to the original narratives already mentioned, not more than two or three
can be considered as speaking with any authi irity, the rest simply copying from these
without investigation. The first attempt to locate the route definitely was made
by Meek (Romantic Passages, etc.) in 1839 (reprinted in 1857), his conclusions being
■■< i i DE BOTO S ROUTE 1 93
based upon his general knowledge of the geography of the region. In is:>i Picketl
tried to locate ttic route, chiefly, he asserts, from [ndian tradition as related by
mixed-bloods. How much dependence can be placed upon [ndian tradition as thus
interpreted three centuries after the event it is unnecessary to say. Both these
writers have brought De Soto down the Coosa river, in which they have been
followed without investigation by Irvine. Shea and others, but none of these was
awan- of the existence of a Suwali tribe or correctly acquainted with the Indian
nomenclature of the upper country, or of the Creek country as so well summarized
bj Gatschet in his Creek Migration Legend. They are also mistaken in assuming
that only De Soto passed through thi untry, whereas we now know thai several
Spanish explorers ami numerous French adventurers traversed the same territory,
the latest expeditions of course being freshest in Indian memory. Jones in his
"De Soto's March Through Georgia" simply dresses up the- earlier statements in
more literary style, sometimes changing surmises to positive assertions, without
mentioning his authorities. Maps of the supposed route, all bringing De Soto down
the ( loosa instead of the ( lhattahoochee, have been published in [rving's ( ionquest of
Florida, the Hakluyt Society's edition of the Gentleman of El va's account, and in
Buckingham Smith's translation of the same narrative, as well as in several other
works. For the eastern portion, with which we have to deal, all of these arc prac-
tically duplicates of one another. On several old Spanish and French maps the
names mentioned in the narrative seem to have been set down merely to till space,
without much reference to the text of the chronicle. For a list and notices of prin-
cipal writers who have touched upon this subject see the appendix to Shea's chapter
on "Ancient Florida" in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America, n; Bos-
ton, 1886. We shall speak only of that part of the route which lav near the < Iherokee
mountains.
The first location which concerns us in the narrative is: Cofitaehiqui, the town
from which De Soto set out for the Cherokee country. The name appears variously
as Cofitachequi (Ranjel), Cofitachique (Biedma), Cofachiqui (Garcilaso), Cutifa-
Chiqui (by transposition, Elvas), Cofetacque (Vandera), Catafachique (Williams)
and Cosatachiqui (misprint, Brooks MSS), and the Spaniards first heard of the
region as Yupaha from a tribe farther to the south. The correct form appeals to lie
that first given, which Gatschet, from later information than that quoted in his
(feck Migration Legend, makes a Hitchitee word about equivalent to "Dogwood
town," fromco/i, "dogw 1," coftta, "dogwood thicket," zndchiki, "house," orcol-
lectively "town." McCulloch puts the town upon the headwaters of the Ocmulgee;
Williams locates it on the Chattah dice; Gallatin on the Oconc r the Savannah;
Meek and Monette, following him, probably in the fork of the Savannah and the
Broad; 1'ickett. with Jones and others following him. at Silver bluff on the east
i north) hank of the Savannah, in Barnwell county, South Carolina, about 25 mile- by
water below the present Augusta. It will thus be seen that at the very outset of our
inquiry the commentators differ by a distance equal to more than half the width of
the stat i -of ( Jeorgia. It will suffice here to say, without going into the argument, that,
the author is inclined to believe that the Indian town was on or near Silver bluff,
which was noted for its extensive ancient remains as far back as Bartram's time
(Travels. 313), and where the noted George Galphin established a trading post in
1736. The original site has since been almost entirely worn away by the river.
According to the Indians of Cofitaehiqui, the town, which was on the farther i north)
bank of the stream, was tw o day's journey from the sea, probably by canoe, and the
sailors « ith the expedition believed tin- river to be the same one that entered al St.
Helena, which was a very close guess. The Spaniards were shown here European
articles which they were told had been obtained from white men who had entered the
river's mouth many years before. These they conjectured to have been the men
with Ayllon, who had landed on that coast in 1520 and again in 1524. The town was
probably the ancient capital of the I'.hee Indians, who, before their absorption by
!'.» F.TH- 111 13
194 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
the Creeks, held or claimed most of the territory on both banks of Savannah river
from the Cherokee border t" within about forty miles of Savannah ami westward to
the* >geeeheeand Cannouchee rivers (see Gatschet, ( Ireek Migration Legend, i, 17-34).
The country was already on the decline in 1540 from a recent fatal epidemic, but
was yet populous ami wealthy, and was ruled by a woman chief whose authority
extended for a considerable distance. The town was visited also by Pardoin 1567 and
again by Torres in HiL's, w hen it was still a principal settlement, as rich in pearls as in
De Soto's time i Brooks MSS, in the archives of the Bureau of American Ethnology).
Somewhere in southern Georgia De Soto had been told of a rich province called
Coca (Coosa, the Creek country) toward the northwest. At Cofltachiqui he again
heard of it and of one of its principal towns called ( 'hiaha (( heliaw ) as being twelve
da\ s inland. Although on first hearing of it lie had kept on in the other direction
in order to reach Cofltachiqui, he now determined to go there, and made the
queen a prisoner to compel her to accompany him a part of the way as guide. ( 'oca
province was. though he did not know it, almost due west, and he was in haste to
reach it in order to obtain corn, as his men and horses were almost worn out from
hunger. It is apparent, however, that the unwilling queen, afraid of being carried
beyond her own territories, led the Spaniards by a roundabout route in the hope of
making her escape, as she finally did, or perhaps of leaving them to starve and die in
the mountains, precisely the trick attempted by the Indians upon another Spanish
adventurer, Coronado, entering the great plains from the Pacific coast in search of
golden treasure in the .same year.
Instead therefore of recrossing the river to the westward, the Spaniards, guided
by the captive queen, took the direction of the north ("la vuelta del norte" —
Biedma), and, after passing through several towns subject to the queen, came in
seven days to "the province of Chalaque" (Elvas). Elvas, Garcilaso, and Ranjel
agree upon the spelling, but the last named makes the distance only two days from
Cofltachiqui. Biedma does not mention the country at all. . The trifling difference
in statement of live days in seven need not trouble us, as Biedma makes the whole
distance from Cofltachiqui to Xuala eight days, and from Guaxuleto Chiaha four days,
where Elvas makes it, respectively, twelve and seven days. Chalaque is, of course,
Cherokee, as all writers agree, and De Soto was now probably on the waters of
Keowee river, the eastern head stream of Savannah river, where the Lower Chero-
kee had their towns. Finding the country bare of corn, he made no stay.
Proceeding six days farther they came next to Guaquili, where they were kindly
received. This name occurs only in the Ranjel narrative, the other three being
entirely silent in regard to such a halting place. The name has a Cherokee sound
(Wakili), but if we allow for a dialectic substitution of / for r it may be connected
with such Catawba names as Congaree, Wateree, and Sugeree. It was probably a
village of minor importance.
They came next to the province of Xuala, or Xualla, as the Divas narrative more
often has it. In a French edition it appears as Chouala. Ranjel makes it three
days from Guaquili or five from Chalaque. Elvas also makes it live days from
Chalaque, while Biedma makes it eight days from Cofltachiqui, a total discrepancy
of four days from the last-named place. Biedma describes it as a rough mountain
country, thinly populated, but with a few Indian houses, and thinks that in these
mountains the great river of Fspiritu Santo (the Mississippi) had its birth. Ranjel
describes the town as situated in a plain in the vicinity of rivers and in a country
with greater appearance of gold mines than any they had yet seen. The Portuguese
gentleman describes it as having very little corn, and says that they reached it from
Cofltachiqui over a hilly country. In his final chapter he states that the course
from Cofltachiqui to this place was from south to north, thus agreeing with Biedma.
According to Garcilaso (pp. 136-137) it was fifty leagues by the road along which the
Spaniards had come from Cofltachiqui to the first valley of the province of Xuala,
moosey] . dk SOTO'S ROUTE I ". r >
with but few mountains on the way, ami the town itself was situated close under a
mi mil tain ( " a la tali la de una sierra " beside a small bul rapid stream which formed
the boundary of the territory of Cofitachiqui in this direction. From Ranjel we
learn that on the same day after leaving this place for the nexl "province" the
Spaniards crossed a very hi^l untain ridge ("una sierra tnuy alta"
Without mentioning the name, Pickett > 1851 refers to Kuala as "a town in the
present Habersham county, Georgia," but gives no reason for this opinion. Rye
and Irving, of the same date, arguing from a slight similarity of name, think it may
have been on the site of a fun hit Cherokee town, Qualatchee, on the head of Chat-
tahoochee river in Georgia. The resemblance, however, is rather farfetched, and
moreover this same name is found on Keowee river in South Carolina. .1 s
i De Soto in < reorgia, 1880) interprets ' rarcilaso's description to refer to " Sai :hee
valley. Habersham county" which should be White county— and the neighboring
Mount yonah, overlooking the fact that the same description of mountain, valley,
and swift flowing stream might apply equally well to any one of twenty other
localities in this southern mountain country. With direct contradiction Garcilaso
says that the Spaniards rested here fifteen days because they found provisions plenti-
ful, while the Portuguese Gentleman says that they stopped but two days because
they found so little corn! Ranjel makes them stop four days and says they found
abundant provisions and assistance.
However that maj have been, there can lie no question of tin- identity of the
name. As the province of Chalaque is the country of the Cherokee, so the province
of Xuala is the territory of the Suwali or Sara Indians, better known later as
Cheraw, who lived in early times in the piedmont country about the head of Broad
river in North Carolina, adjoining the Cherokee, who still remember them under
the name of Ani'-Suwa'li. A principal trail to their country from the west led up
Swannanoa river ami across the gap which, fur this reason, was kmiwn to the
( Jherokee as Suwa'li-nunna, " Suwali trail," corrupted by the whites to Swannanoa.
Leilerer. who found them in the same general region in 1670, calls this gap the
"Suala pass" ami the neighboring mountains the Sara mountains, "which," lie
says, "The Spaniards make Simla." They afterward shifted to the mirth and
finally returned ami were incorporated with the Catawba (see Mooney, Simian Tribes
• if the East, bulletin of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1894).
Up to this point the Spaniards had followed a mirth course from Cofitachiqui
(Biedma ami Elvas), but they now turned to the west i Elvas, final chapter). On
the same day on which they left Xnala they crossed "a very high mountain ridge,"
and descended the next day to a wide meadow bottom I "savana" I, through which
Qowed a river which they concluded was a part of the Espiritu Santo, the Mississippi
(Ranjel). Biedma speaks of crossing a mountain country ami mentions the river,
which he also says they thought to he a tributary of the Mississippi. ( ianilasu
Bays that this portion of their mute was through a mountain country without inhabi-
tants i "desp. ihladn" i ami the I'. .it iiL'iioe gentleman describes it as being over " very
rough ami high ridges." In live days of such travel — fur here, for a wonder, all the
narratives agree — they ram.- to Guaxule. This is the form given by Garcilaso and
the Gentleman of Elvas; Biedma has Guasula, and Ranjel Guasili or Guasuli. The
translators am! commentators have given its such forms as Guachoule, Quaxule,
Quaxulla, and Quexale. According to the Spanish method of writing Indian words
the name was pronounced Washule' or W'asuli, which has a Cherokee sound, although
it can not he translated. Buckingham Smith I Narratives, p. 222 I hints that the Span-
iards may have changed (oiasili to Guasule, because of the similarity of tin- latter
form to a town name in southern Spain. Smh corruptions of Indian name arc of
frequent occurrence. < rarcilaso speaks of it as a " province and town," while Biedma
ami Ranjel call it simply a town ("pueblo"). Before reaching this place the Indian
queen had managed to make her escape. All the chroniclers tell of the kind recep-
196 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
tion which the Spaniards met here, hut th<' only description of the town itself is from
Garcilaso, who says that it was situated in the midst of many small streams which
came down from the mountains round about, that it consisted of three hundred
houses, which is probably an exaggeration, though it goes to show that the village
was of considerable size, and that the chief's house, in which the principal officers
were lodged, was upon a high hill ( "un cerro alto" ), around which was a roadway
( " paseadero' ' ) wide enough for six men to walk abreast. By the "chief's house"
we are to understand the town-house, while from various similar references in other
parts of the narrative there can be no doubt that the "hill" upon which it stood was
an artificial mound. In modern Spanish writing such artificial elevations are more
often called lomas, but these early adventurers may be excused for not noting the
distinction. Issuing from the mountains round about the town were numerous small
streams, which united to form the river which the Spaniards henceforth followed
from here down to Chiaha, where it was as large as the Guadalquivir at Sevilla
( ( larcilaso).
Deceived by the occurrence, in the Portuguese narrative, of the name Canasagua,
which they assumed could belong in but one place, earlier commentators have
identified this river with the Coosa, Pickett putting Guaxule somewhere upon its
upper waters, while Jones improves upon this by making the site "identical, or very
nearly so, with Coosawattee Old town, in the southeastern corner of Murray county,"
Georgia. As we shall show, however, the name in question was duplicated in several
states, and a careful study of the narratives, in the light of present knowledge of the
country, makes it evident that the river was not the Coosa, but the Chattahoochee.
Turning our attention once more to Xuala, the most northern point reached by
De Soto, we have seen that this was the territory of the Suwala or Sara Indians, in
the eastern foothills of the Alleghenies, about the head waters of Broad and Catawha
rivers, in North Carolina. As the Spaniards turned here to the west they probably
did not penetrate far beyond the present South Carolina boundary. The "very high
mountain ridge" which they crossed immediately after leaving the town was in all
probability the main chain of the Blue ridge, while the river which they found after
descending to the savanna on the other side, and which they guessed to be a branch
of the Mississippi, was almost as certainly the upper part of the French Broad, the
first stream flowing in an opposite direction from those which they had previously
encountered. They may have struck it in the neighborhood of Hendersonville or
Brevard, there being two gaps, passable for vehicles, in the main ridge eastward
from the first-named town. The uninhabited mountains through which they strug-
gled for several days on their way to Chiaha and Coca (the Creek country) in the
southwest were the broken ridges in which the Savannah and the Little Tennessee
have their sources, and if they followed an Indian trail they may have passed through
the Rabun gap, near the present Clayton, Georgia. Guaxule, and hot Xuala, as Jones
supposes, was in Nacoochee valley, in the present White county, Georgia, and the
small streams which united to form the river down which the Spaniards proceeded
to Chiaha were the headwaters of the Chattahoochee. The hill upon which the
townhouse was built must have been the great Nacoochee mound, the most promi-
nent landmark in the valley, on the east bank of Sautee creek, in White county,
about twelve miles northwest of Clarkesville. This is the largest mound in upper
Georgia, with the exception of the noted Etowah mound near Cartersville, and is the
'only one which can fill the requirements of the case. There are but two consider-
able mounds in western North Carolina, that at Franklin and a smaller one on Oeona-
luftee river, on the present East Cherokee reservation, and as both of these are on
streams flowing away from the Creek country, this fact alone would bar them from
consideration. The only large mounds in upper Georgia are this one at Nacoochee
and the group on the Etowah river, near Cartersville. The largest of the Etowah
group is some fifty feet in height and is ascended on one side by means of a roadway
MOONKY]
DE SOTO'S EOUTE 197
about fifty feet wide at the base and narrowing gradually to the top. Had this been
the mound of the narrative it is hardly possible that the chronicler would have failed
to notice also the two other mounds of the group or the other one on the opposite
side of the river, each of these being from twenty to twenty-five feet in height, to say
nothing of the great ditch a quarter of a mile in length which encircles the group.
Moreover, Cartersville is at some distance from the mountains, and the Etowah river
at this point does not answer the description of a small rushing mountain stream.
There is no considerable mound at Coosawatee or in any of the thre< unties
adj. lining.
The Nacoochee mound has been cleared and cultivated for many years ami ih.es
not now show any appearance of a roadway up the Bide, but from its great height
We may he reasonably sure that some such means of easy ascent existed in ancient
times. In other respects it is the only mound in the whole upper country which
tills the conditions. The valley is one of the most fertile spots in Georgia and
numerous ancient remains give evidence that it was a favorite center of settlement in
early days. At the beginning of the modern historic period it was held by the
Cherokee, who had there a town called Nacoochee, but their claim was disputed by
the Creeks. The Gentleman of Elvas states that Guaxule was subject to the queen
of Cofitachiqui, but this may mean only that the people of the two towns or trihes
were in friendly alliance. The modern name is pronounced Nagutil' by the < Ihero-
kee, who say. however, that it is not of their language. The terminal may Ik- the
Creek udshi, "small." or it may have a connection with the name of the Tehee
Indians.
From Guaxule the Spaniards advanced toCanasoga (Ranjel) orCanasagua I Elvas I,
one or two days' march from Guaxule, according to one or the other authority.
Garcilaso and Biedma do not mention the name. As Garcilaso states that from
Guaxule to Chiaha the march was down the bank of the same river, which we
identify with the Chattahoochee, the town may have been in the neighborhood of
the present Gainesville. As we have seen, however, it is unsafe to trust the estimates
of distance. Arguing from the name, Meek infers that the town was about Cona-
sauga river in Murray county, and that the river down which they inarched to reach
it was "no doubt the Etowah," although to reach the first named river from the
Etowah it would be necessary to make another sharp turn to the north. From the
same coincidence Pickett puts it on the Conasauga, "in the modern county of Mur-
rav. Georgia," while Jones, on the same theory, locates it " at or near the junction
of the Connasauga and Coosawattee rivers, in originally Cass, now Gordon county."
Here his modern geography as well as his ancient is at fault, as the original Cass
county is now Bartow, the name having been changed in consequence of a local dis-
like for General Cass. The whole theory of a march down the Coosa river rests
upon this coincidence of the name. The same name however, pronounced G&nsd'ffl
by the Cherokee, was applied by them to at least three different locations within
their old territory, while the one mentioned in the narrative would make the fourth.
The others were (1) on Oostanaula river, opposite the mouth of the Conasauga. where
afterward was New Echota, in Cordon county, Georgia; (2) on Canasauga creek, m
McMinn county, Tennessee; (3) on Tuckasegee river, about two miles above Web-
ster, in Jackson county, North Carolina. At each of these places are remains of
ancient settlement. It is possible that the name of Kenesaw mountain, near .Mari-
etta, in Cobb county, < reorgia, may be a corruption of GansagI, and if so, theCanasagua
of the narrative may have been somewhere in this vicinity on the Chattahoochee.
The meaning of the name is lost.
On leaving Canasagua they continued down the same river which they had fol-
lowed from Cuaxule (Garcilaso I, and after traveling several days through an unin-
habited ( "despoblado" ,) country I HI vast arrived at Chiaha. which was subject to the
great chief of Coca (Elvasj . The name is spelled Chiaha by Ranjel and the < tenth-
198 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Leth.ann.19
man of Elvas, Chiha by Biedma in the Documentos, China by a misprint in an
English rendering, and Ychiaha byGarcilaso. It appears as Chiha on an English map
of 17iii' reproduced in Winsor, Westward Movement, page 31, 1897. Gallatin spells
it Ichiaha, while Williams and Fairbanks, by misprint, make it Chiapa. According
t < < both Ranjel and Elvas the army entered it on the 5th of June, although the
former makes it tour days from Canasagua, while the other makes it five. Biedma
says it was four days from Guaxule, and, finally, Garcilaso says it was six days and
thirty leagues from Guaxule and on the same river, which was, here at Chiaha, as
large as the Guadalquivir at Sevilla. As we have seen, there is a great discrepancy
in the statements of the distance from ( lofitachiqui to this point. All four authorities
agree that the town was on an island in the river, along which they had been
marchingfor some time (Garcilaso, Ranjel), but while the Elvas narrative makes
the island "two crossbow shot" in length above the town and one league in length
below it, Garcilaso calls it a "great island more than five leagues long." On both
sides of the island the stream was very broad and easily waded (Elvas). Finding
welcome and food for men and horses the Spaniards rested here nearly a month
(June 5-28, Ranjel; twenty-six or twenty-seven days, Biedma; thirty days, Elvas).
In spite of the danger from attack De Soto allowed his men to sleep under trees in
the open air, "because it was very hot and the people should have suffered great
extremity if it had not been so" ( Elvas). This in itself is evidence that the place
was pretty far to the south, as it was yet only the first week in June. The, town was
subject to the chief of the great province of Coca, farther to the west. From here
onward they began to meet palisaded towns.
On the theory that the march was down Coosa river, every commentator hitherto
has located Chiaha at some point upon this stream, either in Alabama or Georgia.
Gallatin (1836) says that it "must have been on the Coosa, probably some distance
below tin- site of New Echota." He notesa similarity of sound between Ichiaha and
"Echoy." (Itseyl), a Cherokee town name. Williams (1837) says that it was on
Mobile (i. e., the Alabama or lower Coosa river). Meek (1839) says "there can be
little doubt that Chiaha was situated but a short distance above the junction of the
Coosa and Chattooga rivers," i. e., not far within the Alabama line. He notes the
occurrence of a "Chiaha" (Chehawhaw) creek near Talladega, Alabama. In regard
to the island upon which the town was said to have been situated he says: "There
is no such island now in the Coosa. It is probable that the Spaniards either mistook
the peninsula formed by the junction of two rivers, the Coosa and Chattooga, for an
island, or that those two rivers were originally united so as to form an island near
their present confluence. We have heard this latter supposition asserted by per-
sons well acquainted with the country." — Romantic Passages, p. 222, 1857. Monette
(1846) puts it on Etowah branch of the Coosa, probably in Floyd county, Georgia.
Pickett (1851), followed in turn by Irving, Jones, and Shea, locates it at "the site of
the modern Rome." The "island" is interpreted to mean the space between the
two streams above the continence.
Pickett, as has been stated, bases his statements chiefly or entirely upon Indian
traditions as obtained from halfbreeds or traders. How much information can be
gathered from such sources in regard to events that transpired three centuries before
may lie estimated by considering how much an illiterate mountaineer of the same
region might lie able to tell concerning the founding of the Georgia colony. Pickett
himself seems to have been entirely unaware of the later Spanish expeditions of
Pardo and De Luna through the same country, as he makes no mention of them
in his history of Alabama, but ascribes everything to De Soto. Concerning Chiaha
he says:
"The most ancient Cherokee Indians, whose tradition has been handed down to
us through old Indian trailers, disagree as to the precise place [!] where De Soto
crossed the Oostanaula to get over into the town of Chiaha— some asserting that he
]>K SOTO'S ROUTE 199
passed over that river seven miles above its junction with tin- Etowah, and that
he marched from thence down t" Chiaha, which, all contend, lay immediately ;it the
confluence of the two rivers; while other ancient Indians asserted thai lie crossed,
with his army, immediately opposite i In- town. Bu( this is no( verj important.
Coupling the Indian traditions with theaccounl by < larcellasso and thai by the Por-
tuguese rvi'H itness, we are inclined to believe the hitter traditi m thai the expedition
continued to advance down the western side of the Oostanaula until thej halted in
view of the mouth of the Etowah. De Soto, having arrived immediately opposite
the great town of Chiaha, uo\i the site of Rome, crossed the Oostanaula," etc. (His-
tory of Alabama, p. 23, reprint, 1896 . He overlooks the fai I thai 1 Ihiaha was nol a
Cherokee town, but belonged to the province of Coca — i. e., the territorj of the
Creek [ndians.
\ careful study of the four original narratives makes it plain that the expedition
did ii"t descend either the ' tostanaula or the Etowah, and thai consequently < ; hiaha
could not have been at their junction, the present site of Rome. On the othei hand
the conclusion is irresistible that the march was down the Chattal thee from its
extreme head springs in the mountains, and that the Chiaha of the narrative was
the Lower Creek town of the same name, more pommonly known as Chehaw, for-
merly on this river in the neighborh I of the modern city of Columbus, Georgia,
while Coste, in the narrative the next adjacent town, was Kasi'ta, "r Cusseta, of the
same group of villages. The falls at this point mark the geologic break line where
the river changes from a clear, swift current to a broad, slow-moving stream ol the
lower country. Attracted by the fisheries and the fertile bottom lands the Lower
Creeks established here their settlement nucleus, and here, up to the ln-ginning of
the present century, they had within easy distance of each other on both sides of
the river some fifteen towns, among which were Chiaha (Chehaw . I hiahudshi
(Little Chehaw), and Kasi'ta (Cusseta). Most of these settlements were within
what are now Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties, Georgia, and Lee and Russell
counties, Alabama (see town list and map in Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend).
Large mounds and other earthworks on both sides of the river in the vicinity of
Columbus attest the importance of tin- site in ancient days, while the general appear-
ance indicates that at times the adjacent low grounds were submerged or cut off by
Overflows from the main stream. A principal trail crossed here from the I Icniulgee,
pa — in- I iy Tuskegee to the Upper Creek towns about the junction of the Coosa and
Talla] sa in Alabama. \t the beginning of the present century this trail was
know n to the trailers a- " De Soto's trace " (W Iward, Reminiscences, p. 76). As
the Indian towns frequently shift their position within a limited range on account
of epidemics, freshets, or impoverishment of the soil, it is not neeessarj to assume
that they occupied exactly the same sites in 1540 as in 1800, 1 mt only that as a group
they were in the same general vicinity. Thus Kasi'ta itself was at one period above
the falls and at a later period some eight miles belowthem. Both Kasi'ta and Chiaha
were principal towns, with several branch villages.
The time given as occupied on the march from Canasagua to Chiaha would seem
too little for the actual distance, but as we have seen, the chroniclers do no1 agree
among themselves. We can easily believe that the Spaniards, buoyed up by the
certainty of finding f 1 and rest at their next halting place, made better progress
along the smooth rivertrail than while blundering helplessly through the mountains
at the direction of a most unwilling* guide. If Canasagua was any w here in the neigh-
borhood of Kenesaw, in Cobb county, the time mentioned in the Elvas or ( larcilaso
narrative would probably have been sufficient for reaching < Ihiaha at the falls. The
uninhabited country between the two towns was the neutral ground between the
two hostile tribes, the Cherokee and the ( 'reeks, and it is worth noting that Kene
saw mountain was made a point on the boundary line afterward established betwe< n
the two tribes through the mediation of the United States government.
200 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.anx. 1
There is no large island in either the Coosa or the Chattahoochee, and we are
forced to the conclusion that what the chronicle describes as an island was really a
portion of the bottom land temporarily cut off by back water from a freshet. In a
similar way "The Slue," east of Flint river in Mitchell county, may have been
formed by a shifting of the river channel. Two months later, in Alabama, the
Spaniards reached a river so swollen by rains that they were obliged to wait six
days before they could cross (Elvas). Lederer, while crossing South Carolina in
1670, found his farther progress barred by a "great lake," which he puts on his map
as "Ushery lake," although there is no such lake in the state; but the mystery is
explained by Lawson, who, in going over the same ground thirty years later, found
all the bottom lands under water from a great flood, the Santee in particular being
36 feet above its normal level. As Lawson was a surveyor his figures may be con-
sidered reliable. The "Ushery lake" of Lederer was simply an overflow of Catawba
river. Flood water in the streams of upper Georgia and Alabama would quickly be
carried off, but would be apt to remain for some time on the more level country
below the falls.
According to information supplied by Mr Thomas Robinson, an expert engineering
authority familiar with the lower Chattahoochee, there was formerly a large mound,
now almost entirely washed away, on the eastern bank of the river, about nine miles
below Columbus, while on the western or Alabama bank, a mile or two farther down,
there is still to be seen another of nearly equal size. "At extreme freshets both of
these mounds were partly submerged. To the east of the former, known as the
Indian mound, the flood plain is a mile or two wide, and along the eastern side of
the plain stretches a series of swamps or wooded sloughs, indicating an old river bed.
All the plain between the present river and the sloughs is river-made land. The
river bluff along by the mound on the Georgia side is from twenty to thirty feet above
tlie present low-water surface of the stream. About a mile above the mound arc the
remains of what was known as Jennies island. At ordinary stages of the river no
island is there. The eastern channel was blocked by government works some
years ago, and the whole is filled up and now used as a cornfield. The island
remains can be traced now, I think, for a length of half a mile, with a possible
extreme width of 300 feet. . . . This whole country, on both sides of the river,
is full of Indian lore. I have mentioned both mounds simply to indicate that this
portion of the river was an Indian locality, and have also stated the facts about the
remains of Jennies island in order to give a possible clew to a professional who might
study the ground." — Letter, April 22, 1900.
Chiaha was the first town of the " province of Coca," the territory of the Coosa or
Creek Indians. The next town mentioned, Coste (Elvas and Ranjel), Costehe
(Bieilma) or A coste (Garcilaso), was Kasi'ta, or Cusseta, as it was afterward known
to the whites. While Garcilaso puts it at the lower end of the same island upon
which Chiaha was situated, the Elvas narrative makes it seven days distant! The
modern towns of Chehaw and Cusseta were within a few miles of each other on the
Chattahoochee, the former being on the western or Alabama side, while Cusseta, in
1799, was on the east or Georgia side about eight miles below the falls at Columbus,
and in Chattahoochee county, which has given its capital the same name, Cusseta.
From the general tone of the narrative it is evident that the two towns were near
together in De Soto's time, and it may be that the Elvas chronicle confounded Kasi'ta
with Koasati, a principal Upper Creek town, a short distance below the junction of
the Coosa and Tallapoosa. At Coste they crossed the river ami continued westward
"through many towns subject to the cacique of Coca" (Elvas) until they came to the
great town of Coca itself. This was Kusa or Coosa, the ancient capital of the Upper
Creeks. There were two towns of this name at different periods. One, described by
Adair in 1775 as "the great and old beloved town of refuge, Koosah," was on the east
bank of Coosa river, a few miles southwest of the present Talladega, Alabama. The
muonf.vJ DK SOTO'S ROUTE 201
other, known as "Old < toosa," and probablj of more ancient origin, was on the west
side oi Alabama river, near the present site of Montgomery (see Gatschet, Creek
Migration Legend I. It was probablj the latter \\ bich was visited bj l>o Soto, and later
..ii by Iv Luna, in 1559. Beyond ( toca they passed through another < Ireek town, ap-
parently lower doy n on the Alabama, the name of which is variously spelled 5 taua
(Elvas, Force translation!. Ytava (Elvas, Hakluyt Society translation), or Ctaba
(Ranjel), and which may be connected with ['tiwft', Etowah or " Hightower," the
Dame of a former Cherokee settlement near the bead of Etowah river in Georgia.
The Cherokee regard this as a foreign name, and its occurrence in upper Georgia, as
well as in central Alabama, may help to support the tradition that the southern
Cherokee border was formerly held by the ('reeks.
1 1, Soto's route beyond the Cherokee country does not concern us except as it
throws light upon his previous progress. In the seventeenth chapter the Elvas nar-
rative summarizes that portion from the landing at Tampa bay toapoint insouthern
Alabama as follows: " From the Tort de Spirit.. Santo to Apalache, which is about an
hundred leagues, the governor went from east to west; an. 1 from Apalache to ( lutifa-
chiqui, which are 430 leagues, from the southwest to the northeast; ami from Cutifa-
chiqui to Xualla, which are about L'">0 leagues, from the south to the north; anil from
Xuallato Tascaluea, which are 250 leagues more, an hundred and ninety of them he
traveled from east to west, to wit. to the province of Coca; and the other 60, from
Coca to Tascaluca, from the north to the south."
Chisca (Elvas and Ranjel), the mountainous northern region in search of which
men were sent from Chiaha to look for copper and gold, was somewhere in the
Cherokee country of upper Georgia or Alabama. The precise location is not material,
as it i- now known that native copper, in such condition as to have been easily work-
able by the Indians, occurs throughout the whole southern Allegheny region from
about Anniston, Alabama, into Virginia. Notable timls of native copper have been
maileon the upper Tallapoosa, in Cleburne county, Alabama; about Ducktown, in
Polk county, Tennessee, and in southwestern Virginia, one. nugget from Virginia
weighing several pounds. From the appearance of ancient soapstone vessels which
have been found in the same region there is even a possibility that the Indians had
some knowledge of smelting, as the Spanish explorers surmised (oral information
from Mr \V. II. Weed, I'. S. Geological Survey). We hear again of this "province"
after De Soto had reached the Mississippi, and in one place Garcilaso seems to
confound it with another province called Quizqui (Ranjel) or Quizquiz (Elvas
and Biednia). The name has some resemblance to the Cherokee word tuiskwa,
''bird."
19) I>e Lex a AXii Rooei. | p. 27 'l: Jones, in his lie Soto's March through Georgia,
incorrectly ascribes certain traces of ancient mining operation- in the Cherokee
country, particularly on Valley river in North Carolina, to the followers of I >e I. una,
''who, in 1560 . . . came with 301) Spanish soldiers into this region, and spent
the summer in eager and laborious search for gold." Don Tristan de Luna, with
fifteen hundred men, landed somewhere about Mobile bay in 1559 with the design of
establishing a permanent Spanish settlement in the interior, but owing to
sioii of unfortunate happenings the attempt was abandoned the next year. In the
course of his wanderings he traversed the country of the CI taw, Chickasaw, and
Upper Creeks, as is shown by the names and other data in the narrative, but
returned without entering the mountains or doing any digging (see Barcia, Ensayo
Cronologico, pp. 32-41, 1723; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, n, pp. 257 259) .
In 1569 the Jesuit Rogel — called Father John Roger by shea— began mission work
among the South Carolina tribes inland from Santa Elena I about Port Royal).
The mission, which at first promised well, was abandoned next year, owing to the
unwillingness of the Indians to give up their old habits and beliefs. Shea, in Ins
'•Catholic Mission.-," supposes that these Indians were probably a pari of the
202 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.
Cherokee, but a study of the Spanish record in Barcia (Ensayo, pp. 138—14] I shows
thai Rogel penetrated only a short distance from the coast.
(10) Davies' History of the Carribby Islands (p. 29): Tin- fraudulent char-
acter of this work, which is itself an altered translation of a fictitious history by
Rochefort, is noted by Buckingham Smith (Letter of Hernando de Soto, p. 36, 1854),
Winsor (Narrative and Critical History, n, p. 289), and Field (Indian Bibliography,
p. 95). Says Field: "This hook is an example of tin- most unblushing effrontery.
The jiseuilo author assumes the credit of the performance, with hut the faintest
allusion to its previous existence. It is a nearly faithful translation of Rochefort's
' Histoire des Antilles.' There is, however, a gratifying retribution in Davies' treat-
ment of Rochefort, for the work of the latter was fictitious in every part which was
not purloined from authors whose knowledge furnished him with all in his treatise
which was true."
(11) Ancient Spamsit Mixes i pp. 29, 31 I: As the existence of the precious metals
in the southern Alleghenies was known to the Spaniards from a very early period, it
is probable that more thorough exploration of that region will bring to light many
evidences of their mining operations. In his "Antiquities of the Southern Indians,''
Jones describes a sort of subterranean village discovered in 1834 on Dukes creek,
White county, Georgia, consisting of a row of small loir cabins extending along the
creek, hut imbedded several feet below the surface of the ground, upon which lame
trees were growing, the inference being that the houses had been thus covered by suc-
cessive freshets. The loss had been notched ami shaped apparently with sharp metal-
lic tools. Shafts have been discovered on Valley river, North Carolina, at the bottom
of one of which was found, in 1854, a well-] ■reserved windlass of hewn oak timbers,
showing traces of having once been banded with iron. Another shaft, passing through
hard rock, showed the marks of sharp tools used in the boring. The casing and
other timbers were still sound (Jones, pp. 48, 49). Similar ancient shafts have been
found in other places in upper Georgia and western Xorth Carolina, together with
some remarkable stone-built fortifications or corrals, notably at Fort mountain, in
Murray county, Georgia, and on Silver creek, a few miles from Rome, Georgia.
Very recently remains of an early white settlement, traditionally ascribed to the
Spaniards, have been reported from Lincolnton, North Carolina, on the edge of the
ancient country of the Sara, among whom the Spaniards built a fort in 1566. The
works include a dam of cut stone, a series of low pillars of cut stone, arranged in
squares as though intended for foundations, a stone-walled well, a quarry from which
the stone had been procured, a fire pit, and a series of sinks, extending along the
stream, in which were found remains of timbers suggesting the subterranean cabins
on Dukes creek. All these antedated the first settlement of that region, about the
year 1750. Ancient mining indications are also reported from Kings mountain,
about twenty miles distant (Reinhardt MS, 1900, in Bureau of American Ethnology
archives I. The Spanish miners of whom Lederer heard in 1670 and Moore in 1690
were probably at work in this neighborhood.
(12) Sir William Johnson (p. 38): This great soldier, whose history is so insep-
arably incited with that of the Six Nations, was born in the county Meath, Ireland,
in 1715, and died at Johnstown, New York, in 1774. The younger son of an Irish
gentleman, he left his native country in 1738 in consequence of a disappointment in
love, and emigrated to America, where he undertook the settlement of a large tract
of wild land belonging to his uncle, which lay along the south side of the Mohawk
river in what was then the wilderness of New York. This brought him into close
contact with the Six Nations, particularly the Mohawks, in whom he became SO much
interested as to learn their language and in some degree to accommodate himself to
their customs, sometimes even to the wearing of the native costume. This interest,
together with his natural kindness and dignity, completely won the hearts of the Six
iioosey] sik WILLIAM JOHNSON CAPT. JOHN ST1 \i:i 203
Nations, over whom he acquired a greater influence than has ever been exercised
bj an) other white man hefore or since. He was formally adopted as a chief by the
Mohawk tribe. In 17-1-1. being still a very young man, he "as placed in i
British affairs with the six Nations, and iii 1755 was regularly commissioned at
then own urgent request as superintendent for the Six Nations and their dependent
and allied tribes, a position which he held for the rest of his life. In 1748 he was
also placed ii mmand of the New York colonial forces, and two years later was
appointed to the governor's council. \t the beginning of the French and Indian war
he was commissioned a major-general. He defeated Dieskau at the battle of Lake
George, where he was severely wounded earl) in the art ion. bu( refused to leave the
field. For this service he received the thanks of Parliament, a grant of £5,000, and
a baronetcy. Healso distinguished himself at Ticonderoga and Fort Niagara, taking
the latter after routing the French army sent to its relief. At the head of his [ndian
and colonial forces he took part in other actions and expeditions, and was present at
the surrender of Montreal. For his services throughout the war he received a grant
ot 100,000 acres of land north of the Mohawk river, lien' he built "Johnson
Hall." which still stands, near the \ illage of Johnstovi n. w hich was laid out by him
with stores, church, and other buildings, at his own expense. \t Johnson Hall he
lived in the style of an old country baron, dividing his attention between Indian
affairs ami the raising of blooded stock, and dispensing a princely hospitality to all
comers. His influence alone prevented the six Nations joining Pontiac's great con-
federacy against the English. In 1768 he concluded the treaty of Fort Stanwix,
which fixed the Ohio as the boundary between the northern colonic- and the western
tribes, the boundary for which the Indians afterward contended against the Ameri-
cans until 1795. In 17:i!i he married a German girl of the Mohawk valley, who died
after bearing him three children. Later in life he formed a connection with the
sister of Brant, the Mohawk chief. He died from over-exertion at an Indian council.
His son, Sir John Johnson, succ led to his title and estates, and on the breaking out
of the Revolution espoused the British side, drawing with him the Mohawks and
a great part of the other Six Nations, who abandoned their homes and tied with
him to Canada I see \Y. L. Stone. Life of Sir William Johnson).
(13) Captain John Stc u;t (p. 44): This distinguished officer was itemporaneous
with Sir William Johnson, and sprang from the same adventurous Keltic stock
which has furnished so many men conspicuous in our early Indian history. Born in
Scotland about the year I7nn. he came to America in 1 7.'i.".. was appointed to a
subordinate command in the British service, and soon became a favorite with the
Indians. When Fort Loudon was taken by the Cherokee in 1760, he was second in
command, and his rescue by Ata-kullakulla is one of the romantic episodes of that
period. In 1763 he was appointed superintendent for the southern tribes, a position
which he continued to hold until his death. In 1768 he negotiated with the Chero-
kee the treaty of Hard Labor by which the Kanawha was lixed as the western
boundary of Virginia, Sir William Johnson at the same time concluding a treaty with
the northern tribes by which the boundary was continued northward along the Ohio.
At the outbreak of the Revolution he organized the Cherokeeand other southern
trilies, with the white loyalists, against the Americans, and was largely responsible
I'orthe Lndian outrages along the southern border. He planned a general invasion
by the southern trilies along the whole frontier, in i Deration with a British force
to be landed in western Florida, while a British licet should occupy the attention of
the American- on the coast side and the T< iries should rise in the interior. I In the
discovery of the plot and the subsequent defeat of the Cherokee by the Americans.
he tied to Florida and soon afterward sailed for England, where he die. 1 in 1770.
(14) Nancy Ward (p. 47): A noted halfbreed Cherokee woman, the date and
place of whose birth and death are alike unknown. It is said that her father was a
204 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Teth. axn. 19
British officer named Ward and her mother a sister of Ata-kullakulla, principal
chief of the Nation at the time of the first Cherokee war. She was probably related
to Brian Ward, an oldtime trader among the Cherokee, mentioned elsewhere in con-
nection with the battle of Tali'wa. During the Revolutionary period she resided at
Echota, the national capital, where she held the office of "Beloved Woman," or
"Pretty Woman," by virtue of which she was entitled to speak in councils and to
decide the fate of captives. She distinguished herself by her constant friendship
for the Americans, always using her best effort to bring about peace between them
and her own people, and frequently giving timely warning of projected Indian raids,
notably on th :casion of the great invasion of the Watauga and Holston settle-
ments in 177ti. A Mrs Bean, captured during this incursion, was saved by her inter-
position after having been condemned to death and already bound to the stake. In
1780, on occasion of another Cherokee outbreak, she assisted a number of traders to
escape, and the next year was sent by the chiefs to make peace with Sevier and
Campbell, who were advancing against the Cherokee towns. Campbell speaks of
her in his report as "the famous Indian woman, Nancy Ward." Although peace
was not then granted, her relatives, when brought in later with other prisoners,
were treated with the consideration due in return for her good offices. She is
described by Robertson, who visited her about this time, as "queenly and com-
manding" in appearance and manner, and her house as furnished in accordance with
her liij;li dignity. When among the Arkansas Cherokee in 1819, Nuttall was told
that she had introduced the first cows into the Nation, and that by her own and her
children's influence the condition of the Cherokee had been greatly elevated. He was
told also that her advice and counsel bordered on supreme, and that her interference
was allowed to be decisive even in affairs of life and death. Although he speaks
in the present tense, it is hardly probable that she was then still alive, and he does
not claim to have met her. Her descendants are still found in the Nation. See
Haywood, Natural and Aboriginal Tennessee; Ramsey, Tennessee; Nuttall, Travels,
p. 130, 1821; Campbell letter, 1781, and Springstone deposition, 1781, in Virginia
State Papers i, pp. 435, 436, 447, 1875; Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
(15) General James Robertson (p. 48): This distinguished pioneer and founder
of Nashville was born in Brunswick county. Virginia, in 1742, and died at the ( jhick-
asaw agency in west Tennessee in 1814. Like most of the men prominent in the
early history of Tennessee, he was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His father having
removed about 1750 to western North Carolina, the boy grew up without education,
but with a strong love for adventure, which he gratified by making exploring expe-
ditions across the mountains. After his marriage his wife taught him to read ami
write. In 1771 he led a colony to the Watauga river and established the settlement
which became the nucleus of the future state of Tennessee. He took a leading part
in the organization of the Watauga Association, the earliest organized government
within the state, and afterward served in Dunmore's war, taking part in the bloody
battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. He participated in the earlier Revolutionary cam-
paigns against the Cherokee, and in 1777 was appointed agent to reside at their cap-
ital, Echota, and act as a medium in their correspondence with the state governments
of North Carolina (including Tennessee) and Virginia. In this capacity he gave
timely warning of a contemplated invasion by the hostile portion of the tribe early
in 17711. Si « >n after in the same year he led a preliminary exploration from Watauga
to the Cumberland. He brought out a larger party late in the fall, and in the spring
of 17sil built the first stockades on the site which he named Nashborough, now Nash-
ville. < >nly his force of character was able to hold the infant settlement together in
the lace of hardships and Indian hostilities, but by his tact and firmness he was
finally able to make peace with the surrounding tribes, and established the Cumber-
land settlement upon a secure basis. The Spanish government at one time unsuc-
cessfully attempted to engage him in a plot to cut off the western territory from the
mooney] rutheeford's route 205
United Stairs, but met a patriotic refusal. Having beei mmissioned a brigadier-
general in 1790, he continued to organize campaigns, resist invasions, and negotiate
treaties until the final close of the Indian wars in Tennessee. He afterward held the
appointment of Indian commissioner to the < !hickasa\* and Choctaw. See Ramsey,
Tennessee; Roosevelt, Winning of the West; Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American
Bii igraphy.
iliii General Griffith Rutherford (p. 48) : Although this Revolutionary offi-
ce] commanded the greatest expedition ever sent against the Cherokee, with such
distinguished success that both North Carolina and Tennessee have named counties
in his honor, little appears to be definitely known of his history. He was born in
Ireland about 1731, and, emigrating to America, settled near Salisbury, North Caro-
lina. On the opening of the Revolutionary struggle he became a member of the
Provincial Congress and Council of Safety. In June, I77ti, he was commissioned a
brigadier-general in the American army, and a few months later led his celebrated
expedition against the Cherokee, as elsewhere narrated. He rendered other impor-
tant sen ice in the Revolution, in one battle being taken prisoner by the British and
held by them nearly a year, lie afterward served in the state senate of North Caro-
lina, and, subsequently removing to Tennessee, was for some time a member of its
territorial council. He died in Tennessee about 1800.
i 17' Rutherford's route l p. 49): The various North Carolina detachments
which combined to form Rutherford's expedition against the Cherokee in the
autumn of 1770 organized at different points about the upper Catawba and probably
concentrated at Davidson's fort, now Old tort, in McDowell county. Thence,
advancing westward closely upon the line of the present Southern railroad and its
Western North Carolina branch, the army crossed the Blue ridge over the Swanna-
noa gap and went down the Swannanoa to its junction with the French Broad,
crossing the latter at the Warrior ford, below the present Asheville; thence up
Hominy creek and across the ridge to Pigeon river, crossing it a fewmiles below the
junction of the Ea^t and West forks; thence to Richland creek, crossing it just above
the present Waynesville; and over the dividing ridge between the present Hayw 1
and Jackson counties to the head of Scott's creek; thence down that creek by "a
blind path through a very mountainous bad way," as Moore's old narrative has it,
to its junction with the Tuckasegee river just below the present Webster: thence,
crossing to the west (south) side of the river, the troops followed a main trail down
the stream for a tew miles until they came to the first Cherokee town, Stekoa, on
the site of the farm formerly owned by Colonel William H. Thomas, just above tin'
present railroad village of Whittier. Swain county, North Carolina. After destroying
the town a detachment left the main body and pursued the fugitives northward on
tl ther sideof the river to Oconaluftee river and Soco creek, getting back afterward
to the settlements by steering an easterly course across the mountains to Richland
creek (Moore narrative). The main army, under Rutherford, crossed the dividing
ridge to the southward of Whittier and descended Cowee creek to the waters of Little
Tennessee, in the present Macon county. After destroying the towns in this vicinity
tlie army ascended Cartooyaja creek, west from the present Franklin, ami crossed the
Nantahala mountains at Waya gap — where a fight took place — to Nantahala river,
probably at the town of the same name, about the present Jarretts station. From
here the march was west across the mountain into the present Cherokee county and
down Valley river to its junction with the Hiwassee, at the present Murphy.
Authorities: Moore narrative and Wilson letter in North Carolina University Maga-
zine, February, 1888; Ramsey, Tennessee, p. 164; Roosevelt, Winning of the West,
t, pp. 300-302; Royce, Cherokee map; personal information from Colonel William
H. Thomas, Major James Bryson, whose grandfather was with Rutherford, and
Cherokee informant.-.
(18) Colonel William Christian (p. 50): Colonel William Christian, some-
206 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.ask.19
Unit's incorrectly called Christy, was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, in 1732.
Accustomed to frontier warfare almost from boyhood, he served in the French and
Indian war with the rank of captain, and was afterward in command of the Ten-
nessee and North Carolina forces which participated in the great battle of Point
Pleasant in 1774, although he himself arrived too late for the fight. He organized
a regiment at the opening of the Revolutionary war, and in 1776 led an expedition
from Virginia against the Upper Cherokee and compelled them to sue fur peace.
In 1782, while upon an expedition against the Ohio tribes, he was captured and
burned at the stake.
( 19) The pBEAT Indian war path ( p. 50): This noted Indian thoroughfare from
Virginia through Kentucky and Tennessee to the Creek country in Alabama and
Georgia is frequently mentioned in the early narrative of that section, and is indi-
cated on the maps accompanying Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee and Royce's Chero-
kee Nation, in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Royce's map
shows it in more correct detail. It was the great trading and war path between the
northern and southern tribes, and along the same path Christian, Sevier, and others
of the old Indian fighters led their men to the destruction of the towns on Little
Tennessee, Hiwassee, and southward.
According to Ramsey (p. 88), one branch of it ran nearly on the. line of the
later Btage road from Harpers ferry to Knoxville, passing the Big lick in Bote-
tourt county, Virginia, crossing New river near old Fort Chiswell (which stood on
the south bank of Reed creek of New river, about nine miles east from Wytheville,
Virginia) crossing Holston at the Seven-mile ford, thence to the left of the stage road
near the river to the north fork of Holston, "crossing as at present" ; thence to Big
creek, and, crossing the Holston at Dodson'sford, to the Grassy springs near the former
residence of Micaiah Lea; thence down the Nolichucky to Long creek, up it to its
head, and down Dumplin creek nearly to its mouth, where the path bent to the left
and crossed French Broad near Buckinghams island. Here a branch left it and went
up the West fork of Little Pigeon and across the mountains to the Middle towns on
Tuckasegee and the upper Little Tennessee. The main trail continued up Boyd's
creek to its head, and down Ellejoy creek to Little river, crossing near Henry's place;
thence by the present Maryville to the mouth of Tellico, and, passing through the
Cherokee towns of Tellico, Echota, and Hiwassee, down the Coosa, connecting with
the great war path of the Creeks. Near the Wolf hills, now Abingdon, Virginia,
another path came in from Kentucky, passing through the Cumberland gap. It was
along this latter road that the early explorers entered Kentucky, and along it also
the Shawano and other Ohio tribes often penetrated to raid upon the Holston and
New river settlements.
On Royce's map the trail is indicated from Virginia southward. Starting from
the junction of Moccasin creek with the North fork of Holston, just above the
Tennessee state line, it crosses the latter river from the east side at its mouth or
junction with the South fork, just below Kingsport or the Long island; then follows
down along the west side of the Holston, crossing Big creek at its mouth, and crossing
to the south (east) side of Holston at Dodson's creek; thence up along the east side of
Dodson's creek and across Big Gap creek, following it for a short distance and con-
tinuing southwest, just touching Nolichucky, passing up the west side of Long creek
of that stream and down the same side of Dumplin creek, and crossing French Broad
just below the mouth of the creek; thence up along the west side of Boyd's creek to
its head and down the west side of Ellejoy creek to and across Little river; thence
through the present Maryville to cross Little Tennessee at the entrance of Tellico
river, where old Fort Loudon was built; thence turning up along the south side of
Little Tennessee river to Echota, the ancient capital, and then southwest across
Tellico river along the ridge between Chestua and Canasauga creeks, and crossing
the latter near its mouth to strike Hiwassee river at the town of the same name;
PEACE TOWNS AM) TOWNS OF REFUGE 207
thence southwest, crossing Ocoee river near its month, passing south of Cleveland,
through the present Ooltewah and across Chickamauga creek into Georgia and
Alabama.
According to Timberlake Memoirs, with map, 1765), the trail crossed Little Ten-
nessee from Echota, northward, in two places, just above and below Four-mile
creek, the first camping place being at the junction of Ellejoy creek and Little river,
at the old town sin-. It crossed Holston « ithin a mile of Fort Robinson.
According to Hutchins (Topographical Descripti f America, p. 24, 1778), tin-
road which went through Cumberland gap was the one taken by the northern
[ndians in their incursions into the "< iuttawa" country, and went from Sandusky,
on Lake Erie, by a direct path to the mouth of Scioto (where Portsmouth now is i
and thence across Kentucky to the gap.
(20) Peace downs ind towns oi refcoe (p. 51): Towns of refuge existed among
the Cherokee, the Creeks, and probably other Italian tribes, as well as among the
ancient Hebrews, the institution being a merciful provision for softening the harsh-
ness of tin 1 primitive law, which required a life lor a life. We learn from Deuteron-
omy that Moses appointed three cities on tin- east side of Jordan "that the slayer
miirlit flee thither which should kill his neighbor unaware- and hated him not in
times past, and that fleeing into one of these cities he might live." It was also
ordained that as more territory was conquered from the heathen three additional
cities should be thus set aside as havens of refuge for those who should accidentally
take human lite, and w here they should be safe until the matter could lie adjusted.
The wilful murderer, however, was not to I ,e sheltered, hut delivered up to punish-
ment without pity (Dent, tv, 41-4:;. and \i\, 1-11).
Echota, the ancient Cherokee capital near the mouth of Little Tennessee, was the
Cherokee town of refuge, commonly designated as the "white town" or "peace
town." According to Adair, the Cherokee in his time, although extremely degen-
erate in other things, still observed the law so strictly in this regard that even a
wilful murderer who might succeed in making his escape to that town was safe so
long as he remained there, although, unless the matter was compounded in the
meantime, the friends of the slain person would seldom allow him to reach home
alive after leaving it. He tells how a trader who had killed an Indian to protect his
own property took refuge in Echota, and after having been there for some months
prepared to return to his trading store, which was hut a short distance away, hut was
assured by the chiefs that he would he killed if he ventured outside the town. He
was accordingly obliged to stay a longer time until the tears of the bereaved relatives
had been wiped away with presents. In another place the same author tells how a
Cherokee, having killed a trader, was pursued ami attempted to take refuge in the
town, hut was driven off into the river as soon as he came in sight by the inhabit-
ants, who feared either to have their tow n polluted by the shedding of blond or to
provoke the English bygivinghim sanctuary (Adair, American Indians, p. 158, 1775).
In 1768 ( fconostota, speaking on behalf of the Cherokee delegates who had come to
Johnson Hall to make peace with the [roquois, said: " We come from Cbotte, where the
wise [white?] house, the house of peace IS erei I'd" (treaty record, 17hS, New York
Colonial Documents, vm, p. 42, 1 sr>7 ) . In I786the friendly Cherokee made "Chota"
the watchword by which the Americans might he able to distinguish them from the
hostile Creeks ( Ramsey. Tennessee, p. 343). From conversati.m with old ( 'herokeeit
seems probable that in cases where no satisfaction was made by the relatives of the
man-slayer he continued to reside close within the limits of the town until the next
recurrence of the annual Green-corn dance, when a general a esty was pro-
claimed.
Among the Creeks the ancient town of Kusa or Coosa, on Coosa river in Alabama,
was a town of refuge. In Adair's time, although then almost deserted and in ruins, it
was still a place of safety for one who had taken human life without design. Certain
208 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ahn.19
towns were also known as peace towns, from their prominence in peace ceremonials
and treaty making. Upon this Adair says: "In almost every Indian nation there
are several peaerithlr twrns, which are called 'old beloved, ancient, holy, or white
towns. 1 They seem to have been formerly towns of refuge, for it is not in the
memory of their oldest people that ever human blood was shed in them, although
they often force persons from thence and put them to death elsewhere." — Adair,
American Indians, 159. A closely parallel institution seems to have existed among
the Seneca. "The Seneca nation, ever the largest, and guarding the western door
of the.' long house,' which was threatened alike from the north, west, and smith,
had traditions peculiarly their own, besides those common to the other members of
the confederacy. The stronghold or fort, Gau-stra-yea, on the mountain ridge, four
miles east of Lewiston, had a peculiar character as the residence of a virgin queen
known as the 'Peacemaker. ' When the Iroquois confederacy was first formed the
prime factors were mutual protection and domestic peace, and this fort was designed
to afford comfort and relieve the distress incident to war. It was a true 'city of
refuge,' to which fugitives from battle, whatever their nationality, might flee for
safety and find generous entertainment. Curtains of deerskin separated pursuer and
pursued while they were being lodged and fed. At parting, the curtains were with-
drawn, and the hostile parties, having shared the hospitality of the queen, could
neither renew hostility or pursuit without the queen's consent. According to tra-
dition, no virgin had for many generations been counted worthy to fill the place or
possessed the genius and gifts to honor the position. In 1878 the Tonawanda band
proposed to revive the office and conferred upon Caroline Parker the title." — Car-
rington, in Six Nations of New- York, Extra Bulletin Eleventh Census, p. 73, 1892.
(21) Scalping by whites (p. 53) : To the student, aware how easily the civilized
man reverts to his original savagery when brought in close contact with its condi-
tions, it will be no surprise to learn that every barbarous practice of Indian warfare
was quickly adopted by the white pioneer and soldier and frequently legalized and
encouraged by local authority. Scalping, while the most common, was probably
the least savage and cruel of them all, being usually performed after the victim was
already dead, with the primary purpose of securing a trophy of the victory. The
tortures, mutilations, and nameless deviltries inflicted upon Indians by their white
conquerors in the early days could hardly be paralleled even in civilized Europe,
when burning at the stake was the punishment for holding original opinions and
sawing into two pieces the penalty for desertion. Actual torture of Indians by legal
sanction was rare within the English colonies, but mutilation was common ami
scalping was the rule down to the end of the war of 1812, and has been practiced
more or less in almost every Indian war down to the latest. Captain Church, who
commanded in King Philip's war in 1676, states that his men received thirty shil-
lings a head for every Indian killed or taken; and Philip's head, after it was cut off,
" went at the same price." When the chief was killed one of his hands was cut off
and given to his Indian slayer, "to show to such gentlemen as would bestow gratui-
ties upon him, and accordingly he got many a penny by it." His other hand was
chopped off and sent to Boston for exhibition, his head was sent to Plymouth and
exposed upon a scaffold there for twenty years, while the rest of his body was
quartered and the pieces left hanging upon four trees. Fifty years later Massachu-
setts offered a bounty of one hundred pounds for every Indian scalp, and scalp
hunting thus became a regular and usually a profitable business. On one occasion a
certain Lovewell, having recruited a company of forty men for this purpose, dis-
covered ten Indians lying asleep by their fire and killed the whole party. After
scalping them they stretched the scalps upon hoops and inarched thus into Boston,
where the scalps were paraded and the bounty of one thousand pounds paid for
them. By a few other scalps sold from time to time at the regular market rate,
Lovewell was gradually acquiring a competency when in May, 1725, his company
mooney] SCALPING LOWER CHEEOKEE REFUGEES 209
i net disaster, lie- discovered and vl >■ .t a solitary hunter, \\ ho was afterward scalped
by tin- chaplain of the party, bul the Indian managed to kill Lovewell i» i
being overpowered, on which the whites withdrew, but were pursued i>\ the tribes-
men of the slain hunter, with the result that but sixteen of them got homi
ius old ballad of the time tells how
"Our worthy Captain Lovewell among them there did die.
The) killed Lieutenant Robbins and wounded good young Frye,
Who was our English chaplain; he many Indians slew,
And some of them he scalped when bullets round him flew."
When the mission village of Xorridgewock was attacked by the New England men
about the same time, women and children were made to suffer the fate of the war-
riors. The scholarly missionary, Rasles, anther .if the Abnaki Dictionary, was shot
down at the foot of the cross, where he was afterward found with his body riddled
with halls, his skull crushed and scalped, Ins mouth and eyes filled with earth, his
limlis broken, and all his members mutilated- ami this by white men. The border
men .if the Revolutionary period ami later invariably scalped slain Indian- as often
as opportunity permitted, and. as has already Keen shown, both British and American
officials encouraged the practice by offers of bounties ami rewards, even, in the ease
of tin- former, when the seal] is were those of white people. < >ur difficulties with the
Apache date from a treacherous massacre of them in 1836 by a party of American
scalp hunters in the pay of the governor of Sonora. The bounty offered was one
ounce of gold per scalp. In lsi>4 the Colorado militia under Colonel Chivington
attaeked a party of Cheyennes camped under the protection of the United States
flag, and killed, mutilated, and scalped 1 70 men, women, and children, bringing the
scalps into Denver, when- the) were paraded in a public hall. One Lieutenant
Richmond killed and scalped three women and live children. Scalps were taken l,\
American troops in the Modoc war of is":!, and there is now living in the Comanche
tribe a woman who was scalped, though not mortally wounded, by white soldiers in
one of the later Indian encounters in Texas. Authorities: Drake, Indians (for New
England wars) ; Roosevelt, Virginia State Papers, etc; (Revolution, etc. ); Bancroft,
Pacific States (Apache); Official Report on the Condition of the Indian Tribes,
1867 (for Chivington episode); author's personal information.
(22) Lower Cherokee refugees (p.55): " In every hut I have visited I find the
children exceedingly alarmed at the sight of white men, and here [at Willstown] a
little hoy of eight years old was excessively alarmed and could not he kept from
Screaming out until he got out of the door, and then he ran and hid himself; lint as
soon a- I ran converse with them and they are informed who I am they execute any
order I give them with eagerness. 1 inquired particularly of the mothers what could
be the reason for this. They said, this town was the remains of several towns who
[sic] formerly resided on Tuvalu and Keowee. and had been much harassed b) the
whites; that the old people remembered their former situation and suffering, and fre-
quently spoke of them; that these tales wen- listened to by the children, and made an
impression which showed itself in the manner I had observed. The women told
me, who I saw gathering nuts, that they had sensations upon my coming to the
camp, in the highest degree alarming to them, and when I lit from my horse, took
them by the hand, and spoke to them, they at first could not reply, although one of
them underst 1 and spoke English very well." — Hawkins, manuscript journal,
1796, in library of Georgia Historical Society.
■ I':;! General Alexander McGilljvray (p. "->< ; > : This famous (reek chieftain,
like so many distinguished men of the southern tribes, was of mixed hi 1. being the
son of a Scotch trader. Lachlan McGillivray, by a halfbreed woman of influential
family, whose father was a French officer of Fort Toulouse. The future chief was
horn in the Creek Nation about 1740, and died at Pensacola, Florida, in 1793. lie
I'd ETH— 111 14
210 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ans.19
was educated at Charleston, studying Latin in addition to the ordinary branches, and
after leaving school was placed by his father witha mercantile firm in Savannah,
lh- remained but a short time, when he returned to the Creek country, where he soon
began to attract attention, becoming a partner in the firm of Panton, Forbes & Leslie,
of Pensacola, which had almost a monopoly of the Creek trade. He succeeded to
tl hieftainship on the death of his mother, who came of ruling stock, but refused
to accept the position until called to it by a formal council, when he assumed the title
of emperor of the Creek Nation. His paternal estates having been confiscated by
Georgia at the outbreak of the Revolution, he joined the British side with all his
warriors, and continued to bea leading instigator in the border hostilities until 1790,
when he visited New York with a large retinue and made a treaty of peace with the
United States on In-half of his people. President Washington's instructions to the
treaty commissioners, in anticipation of this visit, state that he was said to possess
great abilities and an unlimited influence over the Creeks and part of the Cherokee,
and that it was an object worthy of considerable effort to attach him warmly to the
United States. In pursuance of this policy the Creek chiefs were entertained by
the Tammany society, all the members being in full Indian dress, at which the vis-
itors wen- much delighted and responded with an Indian dance, while McGillivray
was induced to resign Ins commission as colonel in the Spanish service for a commis-
sion of higher grade in the service of the United States. Soon afterward, on account
of some opposition, excited by Bowles, a renegade white man, he absented himself
from his tribe for a time, but wass i recalled, and continued to rule over the Nation
until his death.
Mc( rillivray appears to have had a curious mixture of Scotch shrewdness, French
love of display, and Indian secretiveness. He fixed bis residence at Little Talassee,
on the Coosa, a few miles above the present Wetumpka, Alabama, where he lived in
a handsome house with extensive quarters for his negro slaves, so that his place had
the appearance of a small town. He entertained with magnificence and traveled
always in state, as became one who styled himself emperor. Throughout the Indian
wars he strove, so far as possible, to prevent unnecessary cruelties, being noted for
his kindness to captives; and his last years were spent in an effort to bring teachers
among Ins people. On the other hand, he conformed much to the Indian customs;
and be managed his negotiations with England, Spain, and the United States with
such adroitness that lie was able to play off one against the other, holding commis-
sions by turn in the service of all three. Woodward, who knew of him by later
re] hi tat ion, asserts positively that McGillivray' s mother was of pure Indian blood and
that he himself was without education, his letters having been written for him by
Leslie, of the trading firm with which be was connected. The balance of testimony,
however, seems to leave no doubt that he was an educated as well as an able man,
whatever may have been his origin. Authorities: Drake, American Indians; docu-
ments in American State Papers, Indian Affairs, i, 1832; Pickett, Alabama, 1896;
Appleton'a Cyclopaedia of American Biography; W Iward, Reminiscences, p. 59 et
passim, 1859.
(24) Govebnob John Sevier (p. 57): This noted leader and statesman in the
pioneer history of Tennessee was horn in Rockingham county, Virginia, in 1745, and
died at the Creek town of Tukabatchee. in Alabama, in 1815. His father was a French
immigrant of good birth and education, the original name of the family being Xavier.
The son received a good education, and being naturally remarkably handsome and
of polished manner, tine courage, and generous temperament, soon acquired a remark-
able influence over the rough border men with whom his lot was cast and among
whom he was afterward affectionately known as "Chucky Jack." To the Cherokee
be was known as Tsan-usdi', "Little John." After some service against the Indians
on the Virginia frontier be removed to the new Watauga settlement in Tennessee,
in 1 77-, and at once became prominently identified with its affairs. He took
HOPEWELL- OOL. BENJ. HAWKINS 211
pari in Dunmore'a war in 1771 and, afterward, from the opening of the Revolution
in 1775 until tin- close of the Indian wars in Tennessee a period extending over
nearly twentj years was the acknowledged leader or organizer in every impor-
tant Indian campaign along the Tennessee border. His services in this connection
have been already noted. He also c manded one wing of the American forces
al the battle of King's mountain in 1780, and in 17s:; led a body of mountain men to
the assistance of the patriots under Marion. At one time during the Revolution a
Tory plot to assassinate bim was revealed by the wife of the principal conspirator.
In I77!i he had been commissioned as commander of the militia of Washington
county, North Carolina — the nucleus of the present stair of Tennessee -a position
whirl i he had already held by coi n consent. Shortly after the close of the Revo-
lution lie Ih'IiI for a short time the office of governor of the seceding "state of
Franklin." for which he was arrested and brought to trial by the government of
North Carolina, but made his escape, when the matter was allowed to drop. The
question of jurisdiction was Snally settled in 1790, when North Carolina ceded the
disputed territory to the general government. Before this Sevier had been commis-
sioned as brigadier-general. When Tennessee was admitted as a stair in L796 he was
elected its first (state) governor, serving three terms, or six years. In 1803 he was
again reelected, serving three more terms. In lsi l he was elected to Congress, \\ here
he served two terms and was reelected to a third, but died before he could take his
seat, having contracted a fever while on duty as a boundary commissioner among the
Creeks, being then in his seventy-first year. Fur more than forty years he had been
continuously in the service of his country, and no man of his state was ever mure
loved and respected. In the prime of his manhood he was reputed the handsomest
man and the best Indian fighter in Tennessee.
(25) Hopewell, Sen tii Carolina (p. 61): This place, designated in early treaties
and also in Hawkins's manuscript journal as "Hopewell on the Keowee, " was the
plantation seat of I reneral Andrew Pickens, who resided there from the close of the
Revolution until his death in 1S17. It was situated on the northern edge of the
present Anderson county, on the east side of Keowee river, opposite and a short
distance helots the entrance of Little river, and about three miles from the present
Pendleton. In sight of it, on the opposite side of Keowee, was the old Cherokee
town of Seneca, destroyed liv the Americans ill 1 77H. Important treaties were made
here with the Cherokee in 17S5, and with the Chickasaw in 1786.
(26) Colonel Benjamin Hawkins (p. 61): This distinguished soldier, statesman,
and author, was horn in Warren county. North Carolina, in 1754, and died al llaw-
kinsville, Georgia, in 1816. His father. Colonel Philemon Hawkins, organized and
commanded a regiment in the Revolutionary war, and was a member of the conven-
tion that ratified the national constitution. At the outbreak of the Revolution young
Hawkins was a student at Princeton, hut offered his services to the American cause,
and on account of his knowledge of French and other modern languages was
appointed by Washington his staff interpreter for communicating with the French
officers cooperating with the American army. He took [part in several engagements
and was afterward appointed commissioner for procuring war supplies abroad. After
the close of the war he was elected to Congress, and in 1785 was appointed on the
commission which negotiated at Hopewell the first federal treaty with the Cherokee.
He served a second term in the House and another in the Senate, and in 1796 was
appointed superintendent for all the Indians south of the Ohio, lie thereupon
removed to the Creek country and established himself in the wilderness at what is
now Hawkinsville, Georgia, where he remained in the continuance of his office
until his death. As Senator he signed the deed by which North Carolina ceded
Tennessee to the United States in 17! HI, aid as Indian superintendent helped to nego-
tiate seven different treaties with the southern trihos. lie ha. I an extensive know I
edge of the customs and language of the Creeks, and his "Sketch of the Creek
212 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
Country," written in 1799 and published by the Historical Society of Georgia in
1848, remains a standard. His journal and other manuscripts are in possession of
the same society, while a manuscript Cherokee vocabulary is in possession of the
American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Authorities: Hawkins's manuscripts,
with Georgia Historical Society; Indian Treaties, 1837; American State Papers:
Indian Affairs, i, 1832; n, 1884; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend; Appleton, Cyclo-
paedia of American Biography.
(27) Governor William Blount (p. 68): William Blount, territorial governor of
Tennessee, was born in North Carolina in 1744 and died at Knoxville, Tennessee,
in 1800. He held several important offices in his native state, including two terms in
the assembly and two others as delegate to the old congress, in which latter capacity
he was .me of the signers of the Federal constitution in 1787. On the organization
of a territorial government for Tennessee in 1790, he was appointed territorial
governor and also superintendent for the southern tribes, fixing his headquarters
at Knoxville. In 1791 he negotiated an important treaty with the Cherokee, and
had much to do with directing the operations against the Indians until the close
of the Indian war. He was president of the convention which organized the state of
Tennessee in 1796, and was elected to the national senate, but was expelled on the
charge of having entered into a treasonable conspiracy to assist the British in con-
quering Louisiana from Spain. A United States officer was sent to arrest him, but
returned without executing his mission on being warned by Blount's friends that
they would not allow him to be taken from the state. The impeachment proceedings
against him were afterward dismissed on technical grounds. In the meantime the
people of his own state had shown their confidence in him by electing him to the
state senate, of which he was chosen president. He died at the early age of fifty-
three, the most popular man in the state next to Sevier. His younger brother,
Willie Blount, who had been his secretary, was afterward governor of Tennessee,
1809-1815.
(28) St Clair's defeat, 1791 (p. 72): Early in 1791 Major-General Arthur St
Clair, a veteran officer in two wars and governor of the Northwestern Territory, was
appointed to the chief command of the army operating against the Ohio tribes. On
November 4 of that year, while advancing upon the Miami villages with an army of
1,400 men, he was surprised by an Indian force of about the same number under
Little-turtle, the Miami chief, in what is now southwestern Mercer county, Ohio,
adjoining the Indiana line. Because of the cowardly conduct of the militia he was
totally defeated, with the loss of 632 officers and men killed and missing, and 263
wounded, many of whom afterward died. The artillery was abandoned, not a horse
being left alive to draw it off, and so great was the panic that the men threw away
their arms and fled for miles, even after the pursuit had ceased. It was afterward
learned that the Indians lost 150 killed, besides many wounded. Two years later
General Wayne built Fort Recovery upon the same spot. The detachment sent to
do the work found within a space of 350 yards 500 skulls, while for several miles
along the line of pursuit the woods were strewn with skeletons and muskets. The
two cannon lost were found in the adjacent stream. Authorities: St Clair's report
and related documents, 1791; American State I'apers, Indian Affairs, i, 1832; Drake,
Indians 570, 571, 1880; Appleton' s Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
(29) Cherokee clans, (p. 74): The Cherokee have seven clans, viz: Ani'-Wa''ya,
Wolf; Ani'-Kawf, Deer; Ani'-Tsi'skwa, Bird; Ani'-Wa'dl, Paint; Ani'-Saha'ni;
Ani'-Ga'tage'wl; Ani'-Gila'hI. The names of the last three can not be translated
with certainty. The Wolf clan is the largest and most important in the tribe. It
is probable that, in accordance with the general system in other tribes, each clan
had formerly certain hereditary duties and privileges, but no trace of these now
remains. Children belong to the clan of the mother, and the law forbidding mar-
riage between persons of the same clan is still enforced among the conservative
koon] i w dyne's victory 2 1 3
full-bloods. The "seven clans" are frequently mentioned in the sacred formulas,
and even in some of the tribal laws promulgated with in the century There is evi-
dence that originally there were fourteen, which by extinction or absorption have
been reduced to seven; thus, the ancient Turtle-dove and Raven clans now constitute
a single Bird clan. The subject will be discussed more fully in a future Cherokee
paper.
30 Wayne's victory, L 794 (p. 78): Aiter tbe successive failures of Harmar and
si Clair in their efforts against the Ohio tribes the chief command was assigned, in
1793, t" Major-General Anthony Wayne, who had already distinguished himself by
his fighting qualities during the Revolution. Having built Fort Recovery on the
site "i >t Clair's defeat, he made that post his headquarters through the winter
of 1793-94. In the summer of 1794 he advanced down the Maumee with an army
of 3,000 men, two-thirds of whom were regulars, tin August I'd he encountered the
confederated Indian forces near the head of the Maumee rapids at a point know n as
the Fallen Timbers and defeated them with great slaughter, tbe pursuit being fol-
lowed up by the cavalry until the Indians took refuge under the guns of the
British garrison at Fort Miami, just below the rapids. His own toss was only 33
killed and 100 wounded, of w hom 1 1 afterward died of their wound-. The loss ofthe
Indians and their white auxiliaries was believed to be more than double this. The
Indian force was supposed to nn ii dier 2,000, while, on account of the impetuosity oi
Urn ne'- charge, the number of his troops actually engaged did not exceed 900. On
account of this defeat and the subsequent devastation of their towns and fields by
the victorious army the Indian- were compelled to sue tor peace, which was granted
by the treaty eon. -hided at Greenville, Ohio, August :!. 1795, by which the trihis
represented ceded awaj nearly their whole territory in Ohio. Authorities. Wayne's
report and related documents, 1794, American State Papers: Indian Affairs, i, 1832;
Drake. Indians, 571-577, 1880; Greenville treaty, in Indian Treaties, 1837; Appleton's
Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
(31) First things of civilization (p. 83): We usually find that the first things
adopted by the Indian from his white neighbor are improved weapons and cutting
tools, with trinkets and articles of personal adornment. Altera regular trade has
been established certain traders marry Indian wives, and, taking up their permanent
residence in the Indian country, engage in farming and stock raising according to
civilized methods, thus, even without intention, constituting themselves industrial
teachers for the tribe.
From data furnished by Haywood, guns appear to have been first introduced
among the ( Iherokee a hoi it the year 1700 or 1710, although he himself puts the date
much earlier. Horses were probably not owned in any great number before the
marking out of the horse-path for trader- from Augusta about 1740. The Cherokee,
however, took kindly to the animal, and before the beginning of the war of 1760
had a "prodigious number." In spite of their great losses at that time they had so
far recovered in 1775 that almost every man then had from two to a dozen I Adair,
p. 231 I. In the border war- following the Revolution companies of hundred- of
mounted Cherokee and ('reeks sometimes invaded the settlements The cow i-
called wa'ka by the Cherokee and maga by the ('reek.-, indicating thai their first
knowledge of it came through the Spaniards. Xnttall states that ii was first intro-
duce long the Cherokee by the celebrated Nancy Ward i Travels, p. 130). It was
not ill such favor as the horse. hoiiiL' valuable chiefly for food, of which at that time
there was an abundant supply from the wild game. \ potent reason for iis avoid-
ance was the Indian belief thai the eating of the flesh oi a slow \ ing animal brei ds
onding sluggishness in the eater. The same argument applied even more
strongly to the hog, and to this day a few of the old conservatives among
Cherokee will have nothing to do with beef, pork, milk, or butter. Nevei
Bartram tells of a trader in the Cherokee countrj a- earb a- 1775 who had a stock
214 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
of cattle, and whose Indian wife had learned to make butter and cheese (Travels, p.
347). In L796 Hawkins mentions meeting two Cherokee women driving ten very
fat cattle to market in the white settlements (manuscript journal, 1796). Bees, if
not native, as the Indians claim, were introduced at so early a period that the
Indians have forgotten their foreign origin. The De Soto narrative mentions the
finding of a pot of honey in an Indian village in Georgia in 1540. The peach was
cultivated in orchards a century before the Revolution, and one variety, known as
early as I7i«i as the Indian peach, the Indians claimed as their own. asserting that
they had had it before the whites came to America ( Lawson, Carolina, p. 182, ed. 1860).
Potatoes were introduced early and were so much esteemed that, according to one
old informant, the Indians in ( leorgia, before the Removal, "lived on them." Coffee
came later, and the same informant remembered when the full-bloods still consid-
ered it poison, in spite of the efforts of the chief, Charles Hicks, to introduce it
among them.
Spinning wheels and looms were introduced shortly before the Revolution.
According to the Wahnenauhi manuscript the first among the Cherokee were brought
over from England by an Englishman named Edward Graves, who taught his
Cherokee wife to spin and weave. The anonymous writer may have confounded
this early civilizer with a young Englishman who was employed by Agent Hawkins
in I si ) 1 to makewheels and looms for the ( 'reeks i Hawkins. 1801, in American State
Papers: Indian Affairs, i. p. 647). Waff ord, in his boyh 1, say about 1815, knewan
old man named Tsi'nawi on Young-cane creek of Nottely river, in upper Georgia,
who was known as a wheelwright and was reputed to have made the first spinning
w heel and loom ever made among the mountain Cherokee, or perhaps in the Nation,
long before Watford's time, or "about the time the Cherokee began to drop their
silver ornaments and go to work." In 1785 the commissioners for the Hopewell
treaty reported that some of the Cherokee women had lately learned to spin, and many
were very desirous of instruction in the raising, spinning, and weaving of flax, cotton,
and wool (Hopewell Commissioners' Report, 1785, American State Papers: Indian
\ Efa i is. i . p. 39) . In accordance with their recommendation the next treaty made with
the tribe, in 1791, contained a provision for supplying the Cherokee with farming
tools (Holston treaty, 1791, Indian Treaties, p. 36, 1837), and this civilizing policy
was continued and broadened until, in 1801, their agent reported that at the < !hero-
kee agency the wheel, the loom, and the plow were in pretty general use, and fann-
ing, manufacturing, and stock raising were the principal topics of conversation among
men and women ( Hawkins manuscripts, Treaty Commission of 1801 ).
(32) Colonel Return .1. Meigs ( p. 84): Return Jonathan Meigs was born in Mid-
dletown, Connecticut, December 17, 1734, and died at the Cherokee agency in Ten-
nessee, January 28, 1823. He was the first-born son of his parents, who gave him
the somewhat peculiar name of Return Jonathan to commemorate a romantic
incident in their own courtship, when his mother, a young Quakeress, called back
her lover as he was mounting his horse to leave the house forever after what he
had supposed was a final refusal. The name has been handed down through five
generations, every one of which has produced some man distinguished in the pub-
lic service. The subject of this sketch volunteered immediately after the open-
ing engagement of the Revolution at Lexington, and was assigned to duty under
Arnold, with rank of major. He accompanied Arnold in the disastrous march
through the wilderness against Quebec, and was captured in the assault upon the
citadel and held until exchanged the next year. In 1777 he raised a regiment and
was promoted to the rank of colonel. For a gallant and successful attack upon the
enemy at Sag harbor, Long island, he received a sword and a vote of thanks from
I longress, and by his conduct at the head of hisregimentatStony point won the favor-
able notice of Washington. After the close of the Revolution he removed to Ohio,
where, as a member of the territorial legislature, he drew up the earliest code of regula-
moosey] TECUM 111 \ 2 1 5
tions tor the pioneer settlers. In 1801 he was appointed agent for the Cherokee and
took up his resident-eat the agency al Tellico blockhouse, opposite the month ofTellico
river, in Tennessee, continuing to serve in that capacity until his death. He was
! as agent by Governoi VIcMinn, ol Ti nnessee. In the course of twenty two
years he negotiated several treaties with the Cherokee and did eh to further the
work of civilization among them and to defend them against unjust aggression. He
also wrote a journal of the expedition to Quebec. His grandson of the same name
was special agent for the Cherokee and Creeks in L834, afterward achieving a repu
tation in the legal profession both in Tennesssee and in the District of Columbia.
Authorities: Appleton, Cyclopsedia of American Biography, 1894; Royce, Cherokee
Nation, in Fifth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, 1888; documents in American
stale Papers, Indian Affairs, i and ii.
(33) Tecumtha (p. 87): This great chief of the Shawano and commander of the
allied northern tribes in the British service was born near the present Chillicothe, in
western Ohio, about 1770, and fell in the battle of the Thames, in Ontario, October
. i - : His name signifies a " flying panther" -i. e., a meteor. He came of fight-
ing -i. n'k g I even in a tribe distinguished for its warlike qualities, his father ami
elder brother having been killed in battle with the whites. His mother is said to have
died among the Cherokee. Tecumtha is firsl heard of as taking part in an engagement
with the Kentuckians when about twenty \ ears old, and in a few years he had secured
recognition as the ablest leader among the allied tribes. It is sai<l that he took part
in every important engagement with the Americans from the time of Harmar's defeat
in 1790 until the battle in which he lost his life. When about thirty years of age he
iceived the idea .if uniting the tribes northwest of the ( >lii> >. as Pontiac had united
them before, in a great confederacy to resist the further advance of the Americans,
taking the stand that the whole territory between the Ohio and the Mississippi
belonged to all these tribes in common and that no one tribe had tin- right to sell
any portion of it without the consent of the others. The refusal of the government
jo admit this principle led him to take active steps to unite the tribes upon that
basis, in which he was seconded by his brother, the Prophet, who supplemented
Tecumtha's eloquence with his own claims to supernatural revelation. In the
summer of 1810 Tecumtha held a conference with Governor Harrison at Vineennes
to protest against a recent treaty cession, and finding after exhausting his arguments
that the effort was fruitless, he closed the debate with the words: "The President is
far off and may sit in his town and drink his wine, but you and I will have to light
it out." Both sides at once prepared for war, Teeumtlia going south to enlist the
aid of the (reek. Choctaw, and other southern tribes, while Harrison took advan-
tage of hi- ah-eii re to (one the i — ue by marching against the Prophet's town on the
Tippecanoe river, where the hostile warriors from a dozen trihe- had gathered. A
battle fought before daybreak of November 6, 1811, resulted in the defeat of the
Indian- and the scattering of their forces. Tecumtha returned to find bis plans
brought to naught for the time, but the opening of the war between the United
states and England a few months later enabled him to rally the confederated tribes
once more to the support of the British against the Americans. As a commissioned
brigadier-general in the British service he commanded 2,000 warriors in the war of
1812, distinguishing himself no less by his bravery than by his humanity in pre-
venting outrages and protecting prisoners from massacre, at one time saving the
lives ol four hundred American prisoners who had been taken in ambush near Fort
Meigs and were unable to make longer resistance, lb- was wounded at Maguagua,
where nearly four hundred were killed and wounded on both sides, lie covered
the British retreat after the battle of Lake Erie, and, refusing to retreat farther,
compelled the British General Proctoi to make a stand at the Thames river. Al st
the whole force of the American attack fell on Tecumtha's division. Early in the
21 <> MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ETH.Aira.19
engagement he was shot through the arm, but continued to fight desperately until
he received a bullet in the head and fell dead, surrounded by the bodies of 120 of
his slain warriors. The services of Tecumtha and his Indians to the British cause
have been recognized by an English historian, who says, "but for them it is proba-
ble we should not now have a Canada." Authorities: Drake, Indians, ed. 1880;
Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1N94; Eggleston, Tecumseh and the
Shaw nee Prophet.
(34) Fort Minis Massacre, 1813 (p. 89): Fort Minis, so called from an old Indian
trader on whose lands it was built, was a stockade fort erected in the summer of 1813
for the protection of the settlers in what was known as the Tensaw district, and was
situated on Tensaw lake. Alabama, one mile east of Alabama river and about forty
miles above Mobile. It was garrisoned by about 200 volunteer troops under Major
Daniel Beaslev, with refugees from the neighboring settlement, making a total at
the time of its destruction of 553 men. women, and children. Being carelessly
guarded, it was surprised on the morning of August 30 by about 1,000 Creek war-
riors led by the mixed-blood chief, William Weatherford, who rushed in at the
open gate, and, after a stout but hopeless resistance by the garrison, massacred all
within, with the exception of the few nygroes and halfbreeds, whom they spared,
ami about a dozen whites who made their escape. The Indian loss is unknow n. hut
was very heavy, as the fight continued at close quarters until the buildings were
fired over the heads of the defenders. The unfortunate tragedy was due entirely to
tl arelessness of the commanding officer, who had been repeatedly warned that
the Indians were about, and at the very moment of the attack a negro was tied up
waiting to be flogged for reporting that he had the day before seen a number of
painted warriors lurking a short distance outside the stockade. Authorities: Pickett,
Alabama, ed. 189G; Hamilton and Owen, note, p. 170. in Transactions Alabama His-
torical Society, n, 1898; Agent Hawkins's report, 1813, American State Papers: Indian
Affairs, i, p. 853; Drake, Indians, ed. 1880. The figures given are those of Pickett,
which in this instance seem most correct, while Drake's are evidently exaggerated.
(35) General William McIntosh (p. 98): This noted halfbreed chief of the
Lower Creeks was the son of a Scotch officer in the British army by an Indian
mother, ami was born at the Creek town of Coweta in Alabama, on the lower Chat-
tahoochee, nearly opposite the present city of Columbus, Georgia, and killed at
the same place by order of the Creek national council on April 30, 1825. Having
sufficient education to keep up an official correspondence, he brought himself to
public notice and came to be regarded as the principal chief of the Lower Creeks.
In the Creek war of 1813-14 he led his warriors to the support of the Americans
against his brethren of the Upper towns, and acted a leading part in the terrible
slaughters at Autossee and the Horseshoe bend. In 1817 he again headed his war-
riors on the government side against the Seminole :\nt\ was commissioned as major.
His common title of general belonged to him only by courtesy. In bSL'l he was the
principal supporter of the treaty of Indian springs, by which a large tract between
the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers was ceded. The treaty was repudiated by the
Creek Nation as being the act of a small faction. Two other attempts were made to
carry through the treaty, in which the interested motives of Mcintosh became so
apparent that he was branded as a traitor to his Nation and condemned to deat",
together with his principal underlings, in accordance with a Creek law making
death the penalty for undertaking to sell lands without tin- consent of the national
council. About the same time he was publicly exposed and denounced in the
( 'herokee council for an attempt to bribe John Koss and other chiefs of the Cherokee
in the same fashion. At daylight of April 30, 1825, a hundred or more warriors
sen! by the Creek national council surrounded his house and, after allowing the
women and children to come out, set tire to it and shot Mcintosh and another chief
mooneyJ WILLIAM WEATHERFORD — MISSIONARIES 217
us thej tried to escape. I [e left three wives, one of wl i was a t Iherokee. 1 uthori-
ties: Drake, [ndians, ed. L880; Letters from Mcintosh's son and widows, 1825, in
American State Papers: [ndian Affairs, n, pp. 764 and 768.
(36 \Vuii\m Weatherford p.89): This leader of the hostiles in the Creek
war was the son of a white father and a halfbreed woman of Tuskegee town whose
father had been a Scotchman. VVeatherford was born in the Creek Nation about
L780and died on Little river, in Monroe county, Alabama, in 1826. He caine first
into prominence by leading the attack upon Fort Minis, August 30, 1813, which
resulted in the destruction of the fori and the massacre of over five hundred inmates.
It is maintained, with apparent truth, that he <li'l his best to prevent the excesses
which followed tin- victory, and left the scene rather than witness the atrocities
when he found that he could not restrain his followers. The fact that Jackson
allowed him to go home unmolested after the final surrender is evidence that he
believed Weatherford guiltless. At the battle of the Holy Ground, in the following
December, he was defeated and narrow l\ escaped capture by the troops under i ten-
eral Claiborne. When the last hope of the Creeks had been destroyed and their
power of resistance broken by the bloody battle of the Horseshoe bend, March 27,
1814, Weatherford voluntarily walked into General Jackson's headquarters and sur-
rendered, creating such an impression by his straightforward and fearless manner
that the general, after a friendly interview . allowed him to go back alone to gather
up his people preliminary to arranging terms of peace. Alter the treaty he retired
to a i 'latitat ion in Monroe county, where he lived in comfort ami was greatly respected
by his white neighbors until hisdeath. As an illustration of his courage it istold how
he once, single-handed, arrested two murderers immediately after the crime, when the
local justice and a large crowd of bystanders were afraid to approach them. Jackson
declared him to be as high tone.] and tearless as any man lie had ever met. In person
he was tall, straight, and well proportioned, with features indicating intelligence,
bravery, and enterprise. Authorities: Pickett, Alabama, ed. 1896; Drake. Indians,
ed. 1880; Woodward, Reminiscences, 1859.
(37) Reverend David Brainerd (p. 104): The pioneer American missionary
from whom the noted Cherokee mission took its name was born at Haddam, Con-
necticut, April 20, 1718, and died at Northampton, Massachusetts. October 9, 17)7.
He entered Yale college in 1739, but was expelled on account of his religious opinions.
In 1741' he was licensed as a preacher and the next year began work as missionary to
the Mahican Indians of the village of Kaunameek, twenty miles from Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, lie persuaded them to remove to Stockbridge, where he put them
in chargeof a resident minister, after which he took up work with good result among
the Delaware and other tribes on the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. In 1717
his health failed and he was forced to retire to Northampton, where he died a
few months later. He wrote a journal and an account of his missionary labors at
Kaunameek. His later mission work was taken up and continued by his brother.
Authority: Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1894.
38 Reverend Samuel Austin Worcester (p. 105): This noted missionary and
philologist, the son of a Congregational minister who was also a printer, was
born at Worcester, Massachusetts, January 19, 1798, and died at Dark Hill, in the
Cherokee Vat ion west. April 2D. 1859. Having removed to Vermont with his father
while still a child, he graduated with the honors of his class at the state university
at Burlington in 1819, and after finishing a course at the theological seminari at
Andover was ordained to the ministrj in 1825. A week later, withhisnewh wedded
bride, he left Boston to begin mission work among the Cherokee, and arrived in
October at the mission of the American hoard, at Brainerd, Tennessee, where he
remained until the end of 1827. He then, with his wife, removed to Sew Echota,in
i leorgia, the capital of the < Iherokee Nation, w here he was the principal worket
establishment of tl Ph(enix, the first newspaper printed in the Chei
218 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.anx.19
language and alphabet. Iii this labor his inherited printer's instinct came into play,
for he himself supervised the casting of the new types and the systematic arrangement
of them in the case. In March, 1831, he was arrested by the < leorgia authorities for
refusing to take a special oath of allegiance t< i the state. 1 [e was released, but was rear-
rested soon afterward, confined in the state penitentiary, and forced to wear prison
garb, until January, 1833, notwithstanding a decision by the Supreme Court of the
United States, nearly a year before, that his imprisonment was a violation of the law
of tin.' land. The Cherokee Phcenix having been suspended and the Cherokee Nation
brought into disorder by the extension over it of the state laws, lie then returned to
Brainerd, which was beyond the limits of Georgia. In 1835 he removed to the Indian
Territory, whither the Arkansas ( Jherokee had already gone, and after short sojourns
at Dwight and Union missions took up his final residence at Park Hill in December,
1S30. He had already set up his mission press at Union, printing both in the ( Siero-
kee and the Creek languages, and on establishing himself at Park Hill lie began a
regular series of publications in the Cherokee language. In 1843 he states that "at
Park Hill, besides the preaching of the gospel, a leading object of attention is the p rep-
aration and publication of books in the Cherokee language" (Letter in Report of
Indian ( lommissioner, p. 356, 1843 i. The list of his Cherokee publications Hirst edi-
tions) under his own name in Pilling' s Bibliography comprises about twenty titles,
including the Bible, hymn 1 ks, tracts, and almanacs in addition to the Phasnix
and large number of anonymous works. Says Pilling: "It is very probable that he
was the translator of a number of books for which he is not given credit here, espe-
cially those portions of the Scripture which are herein not assigned to any name.
Indeed it is safe to say that during the thirty-four years of his connection with the
Cherokee but little was done in the way of translating in which he had not a share."
He also began a ( Iherokee geography and had both a grammar and a dictionary of
the language under way when his work was interrupted by his arrest. The manu-
scripts, with all his personal effects, afterward went down with a sinking steamer on
the Arkansas. His daughter, Mrs A. E. W. Robertson, became a missionary among
the Creeks and has published a number of works in their language. Authorities:
Pilling, bibliography of the Iroquoian languages (articles Worcester, Cherokee
Phienix, etc. i, 1SSS; Drake, Indians, ed. 1880: Report of Indian Commissioner, 1843
( Worcester letter).
i Mil) Death penalty for selling lands (p. 107): In 1820 the Cherokee Nation
enacted a law making it treason punishable with death to enter into any negotiation
for the sale of tribal lands without the consent of the national council. A similar
law was enacted by the ( reeks at about the same time. It was for violating these laws
that Mcintosh and Ridge suffered death in their respective tribes. The principal
parts of the Cherokee law, as reenacted by the united Nation in the West in 1s4l'.
appear as follows in the compilation authorized in 1800:
"An act against sale of land, etc.: Whereas, The peace and prosperity of
Indian nations are frequently sacrificed or placed in jeopardy by the unrestrained
cupidity of their own individual citizens; and whereas, we ourselves are liable to suffer
from the same cause, and be subjected to future removal and disturbances: There-
fore, . . .
"Be it further rnitrt.nl, That any person or persons who shall, contrary to the will
and consent of the legislative council of this nation, in general council convened,
enter into a treaty with any commissioner or commissioners of the United States, or
any officer or officers instructed for the purpose, and agree to fi^\t\ exchange, or dis-
pose in any way any part or portion of the lands belonging to or claimed by the
Cherokees, west of the Mississippi, he or they so offending, upon conviction before
any judge of the circuit or supreme courts, shall suffer death, and any of the afore-
said judges are authorized to call a court for the trial of any person or persons
So transgressing.
mooney] THE CHEROKEE SYLLABARY 219
■• /;. Itfurlhei enacted, rhat am person or persons who shall violate the pj
of the second section of this act, and shall resist or refuse to appear at the place
designated for trial, or ahsi 1, are hereby declared to be outlaws; ami any person
or persons, citizens of this nation, may kill him or them so offending at am time
and in any manner most convenient, within the limits of this nation, and shall not
be held aci itable to the laws for the same.
i nacted, That no treaty shall be binding upon this nation which shall
not be ratified by the general council, and approved by the principal chief of the
nation. December2, 1842." -Laws of the Cherokee Nation, 1868.
i 11 I'n r I in i;nk t i syllabari (p. 110): lii the various schemes of symbolic
thought representation, from the simple pictograph of the primitive man to the fin-
ished alphabet of the civilized nations, our own system, although not yet perfect,
stands at the head of the list, the result of three thousand years of development by
Egyptian, Phoenician, and Greek. Sequoya's syllabary, the unaided work of an
uneducated Indian reared amid semisavage surroundings, stands second.
Twelve years of his life are said to have been given to his great work. Being entirely
without instruction and ha\ ing no knowledge of the philosophy of language, being not
evi ii acquainted with English, his first attempts were naturally enough in the direc-
tion of the crude Indian pictograph. He set out to devise a symbol for each word of
the language, and after several years oi experiment, finding this an utterly hopeless
task, he threw aside the thousands of characters which he hail carved or scratched
uiion pieces of bark, and started in anew to study the constructii f the language
it-elf. By attentive observation for another long period lie finally discovered that
the sounds in the words used by the ( Iherokee in their daily conversation and their
public speeches could be analyzed and elassitied, and that the thousands of possible
Is were all formed fr varying combinations of hardly more than a hundred
distinct syllables; Having thoroughly tested his discovery until satisfied of its cor-
rectness, he next proceeded to formulate a symbol for each syllable. For this purpose
he made use of a number of characters which he found in an old English spelling
book, picking out capitals, lower-case, italics, and figures, and placing them right side
up or upside down, without any idea of their sound or significance as used in English
(see plate v). Having thus utilized some thirty-live ready-made characters, to which
must be added a dozen or more produced by modification of the same originals, he
• 1 1 •> i o l from his own imagination as many more as were necessary to his purpose,
making eighty-five in all. The complete syllabary, as first elaborated, would have
required someone hundred and fifteen characters, but after much hard study over
the hissing sound in its various combinations, be hit upon the expedient of repre-
senting the sound by means of a distinct character the exact equivalent of our letter
.v — whenever it formed the initial of a syllable. Says Gallatin, " It wanted bin one
step more, and to have also given a distinct character to each consonant, to reduce
the whole number to sixteen, and to have had an alphabet similar to ours. In prac-
tice, however, and as applied to his own language, the superiority of ( riie-s's alphabet
is manifest, and has been fully proved by experience. Yon must indeed learn and
remember eighty-five characters instead of twenty-five [sic]. But this once accom-
plished, the education of the pupil is completed; be can read and he i> perfect in his
orthography without making it the subject ofadistinct study. The boy learns in a
few weeks that which occupies two years of the time of ours." Says Phillips: " In
my own observation Indian children will take .me or two. at time- several, j ears to
master the English printed and written language, but in a few days can read and
write in Cherokee. They do the latter, in fact, as soon as thos learn to shape letters.
\- soon as they master the alphabet they have got rid of all the perplexing questions
in orthography that puzzle the brains of our children. It is not too much to say-
that a child will learn in a month, by the same effort, as thoroughly in the language
220 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [kth.axn.19
of Sequoyah, that which in ours consumes the time of our children for at least two
years."
Although in theory the written Cherokee word has one letter for each syllable, the
rule does not always hold good in practice, owing to the frequent elision of vowel
sounds. Thus the word for "soul" is written with four letters as arda-ntifi-ta,, but
pronounced in three syllables, mlnnta. In the same way tui'i-li'in-i-yurtti ("like
tobacco," the cardinal flower) is pronounced tsdliyusCl. There are also, as in other
languages, a number of minutesound variations not indicated in the written word,
so that it is necessary to have heard the language spoken in order to read with cor-
rect pronunciation. The old Upper dialect is the standard to which the alphabet
has been adapted. There is no provision for the r of the Lower or the sh of the
Middle dialect, each speaker usually making his own dialectic change in the reading.
The letters of a word are not connected, and there is no difference between the written
and the printed character. Authoritirx: Gallatin, Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, in
Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc, n, 1836; Phillips, Sequoyah, in Harper's Magazine, Septem-
ber, 1870; Filling, Bibliography of Iroquoian Languages i article on Guess and plate
of syllabary), 1888; author's personal information.
1] Southern gold fields (p. 116): Almost every valuable mineral and crystal
known to the manufacturer or the lapidary is found in the southern Alleghenies,
although, so far as present knowledge goes, but few of these occur in paying quanti-
ties. It is probable, however, that this estimate may change with improved methods
and enlarged railroad facilities. Leaving out of account the earlier operations by the
Spanish, French, and English adventurers, of which mention has already been made,
the first authentic account of gold finding in any of the states south of Mason and
Dixon's line within what may lie called the American period appears to be that
given by Jefferson, writing in 1781, of a lump of ore found in Virginia, which yielded
seventeen penny weights of gold. This was probably not the earliest, however, as
we find doubtful references to gold discoveries in both Carolinas before the Revolu-
tion. The first mint returns of gold were made from North Carolina in 17'.':;. ami
from South Carolina in 1829, although gold is certainly known to have been found in
tin- latter state some years earlier. The earliest gold records for the other southern
states are. approximately, Georgia (near Dahlonega). IkI.VIsl'O; Alabama, 1830;
Tennessee ildco creek. Monroe county), 1831; Maryland (Montgomery county),
1849. Systematic tracingof gold belts southward from North Carolina began in 1829,
anil speedily resulted in the forcible eviction of the Cherokee from the gold-bearing
region. Most of the precious metal was procured from placers or alluvial deposits
by a simple process of digging and washing. Very little quartz mining has yet been
attempted, and that usually by the crudest methods. In fact, for a long period gold
working was followed as a sort of side issue to farming between crop seasons. In
North Carolina prospectors obtained permission from the owners of the land to wash
or dig on shares, varying from one-fourth to one-half, and the proprietor was accus-
tomed to put his slaves to work in the same way along the creek bottoms after the
crops had been safely gathered. "The dust became a considerable medium of circu-
lation, and miners were accustomed to carry about with them quills tilled with gold,
and a pair of small hand scales, on which they weighed out gold at regular rates; for
instance, Si grains of gold was the customary equivalent of a pint of whisky." For
a number of years, about 1830 ami later, a man named Bechtler coined gold on his
own account in North Carolina, and these coins, with Mexican silver, are said to have
constituted the chief currency over a large region. A regular mint was established
at Dahlonegain 1838 and maintained for some years. From 1804 to 1827 all the gold
produced in the United States came from North < 'arolina. although the total amounted
to hut SH0,000. The discovery of the rich deposits in California checked mining
operations in the south, and the civil war brought about an almost complete suspen-
EXTENSION OF GEORGIA LAWS 221
siim, from which then' is hardly yet a revival. According to the best official esti-
mates the gold production of the southern Allegheny region for the century'from I7;t9
to 1898, inclusive, has been s ething over $46,000,000, distributed as follows:
North Carolina $21,926,376
( ;.•. >rgia 16, 658, 630
South Carolina 3,961,863
Virginia, slightly in excess of 3,216,343
Alabama, slightly in excess of 437,927
Tennessee, slightly in excess of 167,405
Maryland 17,068
Total, slightly in excess of 46, 415,612
Autiiorities: Becker, Gold Fields of the Southern Appalachians, in the Sixteenth
Annual Report United States Geological Survey. 1895; Day, Mineral Resources of
the United States, Seventeenth Annual Report United States Geological Survey,
part ■".. 1896; Nitze, Gold Mining and Metallurgy in the Southern States, in North
Carolina Geological Survey Report, republished in Mineral Resources of the t nited
states, Twentieth Annual Report United states Geological Survey, part 6, 1899;
Lanman, Letters from the Alleghany Mountains, 1849.
(42) Extension of Georgia laws, L830(p.ll7): "It is hereby ordained that all
the laws of Georgia are extended over the Cherokee cQuntry; that after the first day of
June, 1830, all Indians then and at that time residing in said territory, shall be liable
and subject to such laws and regulations as the legislature may hereafter prescribe;
that all laws, usages, and customs made and established and enforced in the sai'l terri-
tory, by the saiil Cherokee Indians, lie, ami the same are hereby, on ami after the
1st day of .lime. 1830, declared null ami void; ami no Indian, or descendant of an
Indian, residing within the ( 'reek or Cherokee nations of Indians, shall he deemed
a competent witness or party to any suit in any court where a white man is a defend-
ant." — Extract from the act passed by the Georgia legislature on December 20, 1828,
"to add the territory within this state and occupied by the Cherokee Indians to
the counties of DeKalb et al.; and to extend the laws of this state over the s ,"
Authorities: Drake. Indians, p. 439, ed. 1880; Royce, Cherokee Nation of Indians, in
Fifth Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 260, 1888.
13 Removal ports, 1838 (p.130): For collecting the Cherokee preparatory to
the Removal, the follow ing stockade forts were built: In North Carolina. Fort Lind-
say, on the south side of the Tennessee river at the junction of Nantahala. in Swain
county: Fort Scott. at Aquone, farther up Nantahala river, in Macon county; Fort
Montgomery, at Robbinsville, in Graham county; Fort Hembrie, at Hayesville, in
Clay county: Fort Delaney, at Yalleytown, in Cherokee county; Fort Butler, at
Murphy, in tin- same county. In Georgia, Fort Scudder, on Frogtown creek, north
of Dahlonega, in Lumpkin county; Fort Gilmer, near Ellijay, in Gilmer county;
Fort Coosawatee, in Murray county; Fort Talking-rock, near Jasper, in Pickens
county; Fort Buffington, near Canton, in Cherokee county. In Tennessee, Fort
( lass, a! ( 'alhoun. on Hiwassee river, in McMinn county. In Alabama, Fort Turkey-
town, on Coosa river, at Center, in Cherokee county. Authority: Author's personal
information.
I 44 Mi Nair's GRAVE, (p. 132): Just inside the Tennessee line, where the Cona-
sauga river bends again into Georgia, is a stone-walled grave, with a slab, on which
is an epitaph which tells its own story of the Removal heartbreak. McNair was a
white man, prominent in the Cherokee Nation, whose wife was a daughter of the
chief, Vann, who welcomed the Moravian missionaries and gave his own house for
their use. The date shows that she died while tin- Removal was in progress, possibly
222 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE leth.ann.19
while waiting in the stockade camp. The inscription, with details, is given from
information kindly furnished by Mr D. K. Dunn of Conasauga, Tennessee, in a
letter dated August 16, 1890:
"Sacred to the memory of David and DelilahA. McNair, who departed this life, the
former on tlir 15th of August, L836, and the latter on the 30th of November, L838.
Their children, being members of the Cherokee Nation and having to go with their
j ico] ili' to the West, do leave this i lument, not only to show their regard for their
parents, but to guard their sacred ashes against the unhallowed intrusion of the white
man."
(45) President Samuel Houston, (p. 145) : This remarkable man was horn in Rock-
bridge county, Virginia, March 2, 1793, and died at Huntsville, Texas, July 25, 1863.
( if strangely versatile, but forceful, character, he occupies a unique position in Ameri-
can history, combining in a wonderful degree the rough manhood of the pioneer,
the eccentric vanity of the Indian, the stern dignity of the soldier, the genius of the
statesman, and withal the high chivalry of a knight of the olden time. His erratic
career has been the subject of much cheap romancing, hut the simple facts are of
sufficient interest in themselves without the aid of fictitious embellishment. To the
Cherokee, whom he loved so well, lie was known as Ka'lanu, "The Raven," an old
war title in the tribe.
His father having died when the boy was nine years old. his widowed mother re-
moved with him to Tennessee, opposite the territory of the Cherokee, whose boundary
was then the Tennessee river. Here he worked on the farm, attending school at
intervals; lint, being of adventurous disposition,' he left home when sixteen years old,
and, crossing over the river, joined the Cherokee, among whom he soon became a
great favorite, being adopted into the family of Chief Jolly, from whom the island at
the mouth of Hiwassee takes its name. After three years of this life, during which
time he wore the Indian dress and learned the Indian language, he returned to civili-
zation and enlisted as a private soldier under Jackson in the Creek war. He s i
attracted favorable notice and was promoted to the rank of ensign. By striking
bravery at the bloody battle of Horseshoe bend, where he scaled the breastworks with
an arrow in bis thigh and led his men into the thick of the enemy, he won the last-
ing friendship of Jackson, who made him a lieutenant, although he was then barely
twenty-one. He continued in the army after the war, serving for a time as subagent
for the Cherokee at Jackson's request, until the summer of 1818, when he resigned
on account of some criticism by Calhoun, then Secretary of War. An official investi-
gation, held at his demand, resulted in his exoneration.
Removing to Nashville, he began the study of law, and, being shortly afterward
admitted to the liar, set up in practice at Lebanon. Within five years he was succes-
sively district attorney and adjutant-general and major-general of state troops. In
1823 he was elected to ( '.ingress, serving two terms, at the end of which, in 1827, he
was elected governor of Tennessee by an overwhelming majority, being then thirty-
four years of age. Shortly before this time he had fought and wounded General White
in a duel. In January, L829, he married a young lady residing near Nashville, but
two months later, without a word of explanation to any outsider, he left her, resigned
his governorship ami other official dignities, and left the state forever, to rejoin his
old friends, tin- Cherokee, in the West. For years the reason for this strange conduct
was a secret, and Houston himself always refused to talk of it, but it is now under-
stood to have been due to the fact that his wife admitted to him that she loved
another and had only been induced to marry him by the over-persuasions of her
parents.
From Tennessee he went to Indian Territory, whither a large part of the Cher-
okee had already removed, and once more took up his residence near Chief Jolly,
who was now the principal chief of the western Cherokee. The great disap-
pointment which seemed to have blighted his life at its brightest was heavy at his
SAMUEL BOUSTOM 'J'-'-'?
heart, and he sought forgetfulness in drink to such an extent that for a time his
manl I seemed to have departed, notwithstanding which, such was his force of
character and his past reputation, he retained his hold upon the affections of the
Cherokee and his standing with the officers and their families at the neighboring posts
of Fort Smith, F"rt i iibson, and Fort ( loffee. In the meantime his former w ife in Den
nessee had obtained a divorce, and Houston being thus frei e more soon after
married Talihina, the youngest daughter of a prominent mixed-bl I Cherokee
named Rogers, who resided near Fort Gibson. She was the niece of Houston's
adopted father, Chief Jolly, and he had known her when a boy in the old Nation.
Being^a beautiful girl, and educated above her surroundings, she became a welcome
guest w herever her husband was received. He started a trading store near Webbers
Falls, but continued in his dissipated habits until recalled to his senses by the out-
come of a drunken affray in which he assaulted his adopted father, the old chief,
and was himself felled to the ground unconscious. Upon recover} from his injuries
he made a public apology for his < luct and thenceforward led asoberlife.
In 1832 he visited Washington in the interest >it' the western Cherokee, calling in
Indian costume upon President Jackson, who received him with old-time friendship.
Being accused while there of connection with a fraudulent Indian contract, he
administered a severe beating to his accuser, a member of Congress. For this he
»;i- lined $500 and reprimanded by the bar of the House, but Jackson remitted the
fine. Soon after his return to the West he removed to Texas to take part in the
agitation just started against Mexican rule. He was a member oi the convention
w hich adopted a separate constitution for Texas in 1833, and two years later aided in
forming a provisional government, and was elected commander-in-chief to organize
the new militia. In 1836 he was a member of the convention which declared the
independence of Texas. At the battle of San Jacinto in April of that year hedefeated
with 7.">n men Santa Ana's army of 1,800, inflicting upon the Mexicans the terrible
loss oi 630 killed and 730 prisoners, among whom was Santa Ana himself. Houston
received a severe wound in the engagement. In the autumn of the same year he
was elected first president of the republic of Texas, receiving more than four-fifths
of the Vote- cast. He served two years and retired at the end of his term, leaving
the country on good terms with both Mexico and the Indian tribes, and with its
note- at par. He was immediately elected to the Texas congress and served in that
capacity until 1841, when he was reelected president. It was during these years that
he made his steadfast fight in behalf of the Texas < Iherokee, as is narrated elsew here,
supporting their cause without wavering, at the risk of his own popularity and posi-
tion. He frequently declared that no treaty made and carried out in t: 1 faith had
ever I. ecu violated by Indians. His Cherokee w ife having died some time 1. el ore. he
was again married in ls4o. this time to a lady from Alabama, who exercised over
him a restraining and ennobling influence through the stormy vicissitudes of his
eventful life. In June, 1842, he vetoed a hill making him dictator for the purpose of
resisting a threatened invasion from Mexico.
(>n December 29, 1845, Texas was admitted to the Union, and in the following
March Houston was elected to the Senate, where he served continuously until 1859,
when he resigned to take his -eat as governor, to which position he had just been
elected. From 1852 to 1860 bis name was three times presented before national
presidential nominating conventions, the last time receiving 57 votes. He had taken
issue with the Democratic majority throughout his term in the Senate, and when
Texas passed the secession ordinance in February, 1861, being an uncompromising
Union man, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was
accordingly deposed from the office of governor, declining the proffered aid of federal
troops to keep him in his seat. Unwilling either to fight against the Union orto
take -ides against his friends, he held aloof from the great Struggle, and remained m
silent retirement until his death, two years later. No other man in American history
224 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.1W
has left such a record of continuoua election to high office while steadily holding to
hisown convictions in the faceof strong popular opposition. Antlmntii-s: Appleton's
Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1894; Bonnell, Texas, 1840; Thrall, Texas, L876;
I.ossing. Field Book of the War of 1812, 1869; author's personal information; various
periodical and newspaper articles.
(46) Chief John Ross (p. 151): This great chief of the Cherokee, whose name is
inseparable from their history, was himself but one-eighth of Indian blood and showed
little of the Indian features, his father, Daniel Ross, having emigrated from Scotland
before the Revolution and married a quarter-blood* Iherokee woman whose fat her, John
McDonald, was also from Scotland. He was horn at or near the family residence at
Rossville, Georgia just across the line from Chattanooga, Tennessee. As ahoy, he
was known among the Cherokee as Tsan-usdi', " Little John," but after arriving at
manhood was called Guwi'sguwi', the name of a ran- migratory bird, of large size
and white or grayish plumage, said to have appealed formerly at long intervals in
the old Cherokee country. It may have been the egret or the swan. He was
educated at Kingston, Tennessee, and began his public career when barely nineteen
years of age. Ilis first wife, a full-blood Cherokee woman, died in consequence of
the hardships of the Removal while on the western march and was buried at Little
Rock, Arkansas. Some years later he married again, this time to a Miss Stapler of
Wilmington, Delaware, the marriage taking place in Philadelphia (author's per-
sonal information from Mr Allen Ross, son of John Ross; see also Meredith,
"The Cherokees," in the Five Civilized Tribes, Extra Bulletin Eleventh Census,
1S94. ) Cooweescoowee district of the Cherokee Nation west has been named in his
honor. The following biographic facts are taken from the panegyric in his honor,
passed by the national council of the Cherokee, on hearing of his death, "as feebly
expressive of the loss they have sustained."
John Ross was born October .'!, 1790, and died in the city of Washington, August
1, 1866, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His official career began in 1809, when
he was intrusted by Agent Return Meigs with an important mission to the Arkansas
Cherokee. From that time until the close of his life, with the exception of two or
three years in the earlier part, he was in the constant service of his people, "furnish-
ing an instance of confidence on their part and fidelity on his which has never been
surpassed in the annals of history." In the war of 1813-14 against the Creeks he
was adjutant of the Cherokee regiment which cooperated with General Jackson, and
was present at the battle of the Horseshoe, where the Cherokee, under Colonel
Morgan, of Tennessee, rendered distinguished service. In 1817 he was elected a
member of the national committee of the Cherokee council. The first duty assigned
him was to prepare a reply to the United States commissioners who were present
for the purpose of negotiating with the Chen ikee for their lands east of the Mississippi,
in firm resistance to which he was destined, a few years later, to test the power of
truth and to attain a reputation of no ordinary character. In 1819, October 26, his
name first appeals on the statute book of the Cherokee Nation as president of the
national committee, and is attached to an ordinance which looked to the improve-
ment of the Cherokee people, providing for the introduction into the Nation of school-
masters, blacksmiths, mechanics, and others. He continued to occupy that position
till 1826. In 1827 he was associate chief with William Hicks, and president of the con-
vention which adopted the constitution of that year. That constitution, it is believed,
is the first effort at a regular government, with distinct branches and powers defined,
ever madeand carried intoeffect by any of the Indians of North America. From 1828
until the removal west, he was principal chief of the eastern Cherokee, and from
1839 to the time of his death, principal chief of the united Cherokee Nation.
In regard to the long contest which culminated in the Removal, the resolutions
declare that "The Cherokees, with John Ross at their head, alone with their
treaties, achieved a recognition of their rights, but they were powerless to enforce
booney] JOHN ROSS — THE KETOOWAH SOCIETV 225
them. They were compelled to yield, but not until the struggle had developed the
highest qualities of patience, fortitude, and tenacity of right and purpose on their
part, as well as that of their chief. The same may be said of their course after their
removal to this country, and Which resulted in the reunion of the eastern and west-
em I Iherokees as one i pie and in the adoption of the present constitution."
Concerning the events of the civil war and the official attempt to depose Ross from
his authority, they state that thes 'currences, with many others in their trying
historj as a people, are confidently committed to the future page of the historian.
••It is enough to know that the treaty negotiated at Washington in 1866 hore the
full and just recognition of John Hoss' name as principal chief of the Cherokee
nation."
The summing up of the [panegyric is a splendid tribute to a splendid maul I:
" Blessed with a line constitution and a vigorous niind, John Koss had the physi-
cal ability to follow the path of duty wherever it led. No danger appalled him.
He never faltered in Supporting what he believed to he right, hut clung to it with a
steadiness of purpose which alone could have sprung from the clearest convictions
of rectitude. He never sacrificed the- interests of his nation to expediency, lie
never lost sight of the welfare of the people. For them he labored daily for a long
life, and upon them he bestowed his last expressed thoughts. A friend of law, he
obeyed it: a friend of education, he faithfully encouraged schools throughout the
country, and spent liberally his means in conferring it upon others. Given to hos-
pitality, none ever hungered around his door. A professor of the Christian religion,
he practiced its precepts. His works are inseparable from the history of the Cher-
okee people for nearly half a century, while his example in the daily walks of life
will linger in the future and whisper words of hope, temperance, and charity in the
years i if posterity."
Resolutions were also passed for bringing his body from Washington at the expense
of the Cherokee Nation and providing for suitable obsequies, in order "that his
remains should rest among those he so long served" (Resolutions in honor of John
Ross, in Laws of the Cherokee Nation, 1869).
(47) The Ketoowah Society (p. l.MS): This Cherokee secret society, which has
recently achieved some newspaper prominence by its championship of Cherokee
autonomy, derives its name — properly Kitu'hwa, hut commonly spelled Ketoowah
in English print — from the ancient town in the old Nation which formed the nucleus of
the most conservative element of the tribe and sometimes gave a name to the Nation
itself i see KUu'hwatfl, under Tribal Synonyms). A strong band of comradeship, if
not a regular society organization, appears to have existed among the warriors and
leading men of the various settlements of the Kituhwa district from a remote period,
so that the name is even now used in councils as indicative of genuine Cherokee
feelingjn its highest patriotic form. When, some years ago, delegates from the
western Nation visited the East Cherokee to invite them to join their more pros-
perous brethren beyond the Mississippi, the speaker for the delegates expressed
their fraternal feeling for their separated kin-men by saying in his opening speech,
"We are all Kituhwa people" (Ani'-KItu'hwagl). The Ketoowah society in the
( In rokee Nation west was organized shortly before the civil war by John I'.. Jones,
son of the missionary, Evan Jones, and an adopted citizen of the Nation, as a secret
society for the ostensible purpose of cultivating a national feeling among the full-
bl Is. in opposition to the innovating tendencies of the mixed-bl 1 element. The
real purpose was to counteract the influence of the "Blue Lodge" and other secret
secessionist organizations among the wealthier slave-holding classes, made up chiefly
of mixed-bl Is and whites. It extended to the Creeks, and its members ill both
tribes rendered g 1 service to the Union cause throughout the war. The) were
frequently known as "Pin Indians," for a reason explained below. Since the close
of the great struggle tin- society has distinguished itself by its determined opposition
I'd KTH— 01 15
22*1 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
to every scheme looking i" the curtailment or destruction of < Sherokee national self-
government.
The 6 illowing account of the society was written shortly after the close of the civil
war:
"Those ( Sherokees who were loyal to the Union combined in a secret organization
for self-protection, assuming the designation of the Ketoowha society, which name
was s i merged in that of "Pins." The Pins were so styled because of a peculiar
manner they adopted of wearing a pin. The symbol was discovered by their ene-
mies, w ho applied the term in derision; but it was accepted by this loyal league, and
has almost superseded the designation which its members first assumed. The Pin
organization originated among the members of the Baptist congregation at Peavine,
Going-snake district, in the Cherokee nation. In a short time the society counted
nearly three thousand members, and had commenced proselytizing the Creeks,
when the rebellion, against which it was arming, preventing its further extension,
the | mi n- ('reeks having been driven into Kansas by the rebels of the Golden Circle.
Dining the war the Pins rendered services hi the Union cause in many bloody
encounters, as has been acknowledged by our generals. It was distinctly an anti-
slavery organization. The slave-holding Cherokees, who constituted the wealthy
and more intelligent class, naturally allied themselves with the South, while loyal
Cherokees became more and more opposed to slavery. .This was shown very clearly
when the loyalists lirst met in convention, in February, 1863. They not only abol-
ished slavery unconditionally and forever, before any slave state made a movement
toward emancipation, but made any attempts at enslaving a grave misdemeanor.
The scent signs of the Pins were a peculiar way of touching the hat as a salutation,
particularly when they were too far apart for recognition in other ways. They had
a peculiar mode of taking hold of the lapel of the coat, first drawing it away from
the body, and then giving it a motion as though wrapping it around the heart.
During the war a portion of them were forced into the rebellion, but quickly rebelled
against General Cooper, who was placed over them, and when they fought against
that general, at Bird Creek, they wore a bit of corn-husk, split into strips, tied in
their hair. In the night when two Pins met, and one asked the other, 'Who are
you?' the reply or pass was, 'Tahlequah — who are you'.'' The response was, 'I
am Kctoowha's son.'" — Dr D. J. MacGowan, Indian Secret Societies, in Historical
Magazine, x, 1866.
(4s i Farewell address of Lloyd Welch (p. 175): In the sad and eventful history
of the Cherokee their gifted leaders, frequently of white ancestry, have oftentimes
spoken tii the world with eloquent words of appeal, of protest, or of acknowledgment,
but never more eloquently than in the last farewell of Chief Lloyd Welch to the
eastern band, as he felt the end draw near I leaflet, MacGowan, Chattanooga [n.d.,
L880] i:
"To the Chairman and Council of tlu Eastern Band of Cherokees:
" My Brothers: It becomes my imperative duty to bid you an affectionate fan-well,
and resign into your hands the trust you so generously confided to my keeping, prin-
cipal chief of the Eastern Land. It is with great solicitude and anxiety for your
welfare that I am constrained to take this course. But the inexorable laws of
nature, and the rapid decline of my health, admonish me that soon, very soon, I
will have passed from earth, my body consigned to the tomb, ni\ spirit to God who
gave it, in that happy home in the beyond, where there is no sickness, no sorrow,
no pain, no death, but one eternal joy and happiness forever more.
"The oid\ regret that I feel for thus being so soon called from among you, at the
meridian of manh 1, when hope is sweet, is the great anxiety 1 have to serve and
benefit my race. For this I have studied and labored for the past ten years of my
life, to secure to my brothers equal justice from their brothers of the west and the
United States, and that you would no longer be hewers of w 1 and drawers of
FAREWELL ADDRESS OF LLOYD WELCH 227
water, but assume thai proud position among the civilized nations of the earth
intended by the Creator that we'should occupy, and which in the near future you
w ill take or I"- exterminated. When you become educated, as a natural consequence
you will become more intelligent, sober, industrious, and prosperous
■■ 1 1 ha- been the aim of ii iv lit".-. 1 1 ir chief object, to serve my race faithfully, hon-
estly, ami to tin- best of my ability. II"" well 1 have succeeded I will leave i" his-
tory and your magnanimity to decide, trusting an all-wise ami just God to guide and
protect you in the future, as lie will do all things well. We may fail w hen mi earth
to see the goodness ami wisdom of God in removing from us our best ami mosl use-
ful men, but when we have crossed over i ill the i it her shore to Our happy ami eternal
Inline in the far beyond then our eyes will be opened and we will he enabled to see
ami realize the goodness and mercy of God in thus afflicting us while here mi earth,
ami will he enabled inure fully to praise < rod, from whom all blessings come.
"I hope that when you come to select one from among you to take the responsible
position of principal chief of your ha ml you will lay aside all persi ma I considerations
and seleet one in every respect competent, without stain on his fair fame, a pure,
mil ile, honest, man — one who loves God ami all that is pure — with intellect sufficient
to know your rights, independence ami nerve to defend them. Should you he thus
fortunate in making your choice, all will he well. It has been truthfully said that
'when the righteous rule the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule the people
mourn.'
■1 am satisfied that you have among you many who are fully competent of tin-
task. If I was satisfied it was your wish ami for the good of my brothers I might
mention some of them, hut think it best to leave you in the hands of an all-wise God,
who does all things right, to guide ami direct you aright.
"Ami now. my brothers, in taking perhaps my last farewell on earth I do pray
God that you may so conduct yourselves while here on earth that when the last sail
rite i- performed by loved friends we may compose one unbroken family above in
that celestial city from whose bourne no traveler has ever returned to describe the
beauty, grandeur, and happiness of the heaven prepared for the faithful by God him-
self beyond the sky. And again, my brothers, permit me to bid you a fond, hut
perhaps a last, farewell on earth, until we meet again where parting is never known
and friends meet to part no more forever.
"L. R. "Welch,
"Principal Chief Eastern Band Cherokei Indians.
" Witness:
"Samuel W. Davidson.
"B. E. Mkrony."
(49) Status of eastern BAND i]>. 180): For some reason all authorities who have
hitherto discussed the status of the eastern band of Cherokee seem to have been
entirely unaware of the enactment of the supplementary articles to the treaty of New
Echota, by which all preemption and reservation rights granted under the twelfth
article were canceled. Thus, in the Cherokee case of "The United States etal against
D. T. Boyd it nl," we And the United States circuit judge quoting the twelfth article
in its original form as a basis for argument, while his associate judge says: "Their
forefathers availed themselves of a provision in the treaty of New Echota and
remained in the state of North Carolina." etc. (Report of Indian Commissionei lor
1895, pp. 633-635, 1896). The truth is that the treaty as ratified with its supplemen-
tary articles canceled the residence right of every Cherokee east of the Mississippi,
and it was not until thirty years afterwards that North ( 'arolina finally gave assurance
that the eastern band would he permitted to remain within her borders.
The twelfth article ..f the new Echota treaty of December 29, 1835, provides for a
pro rata apportionment to such Cherokee as desire to remain in the East, and con-
228 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eih.ann.19
tinues: "Such heads of Cherokee families as are desirous to reside within the states
of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, subject to the laws of the same, and
who are qualified or calculated to become useful citizens, shall be entitled, on the
certificate of the commissioners, to a preemption right to one hundred and sixty
acres of land, or one quarter section, at the minimum Congress price, so as to include
the present buildings or improvements of those who now reside there; and such as
do not live there at present shall be permitted to locate within two years any lands
not already occupied by person's entitled to preemption privilege under this treaty,"
etc. Article 13 defines terms with reference to individual reservatii ins granted under
former treaties. The preamble to the supplementary articles agreed upon on March
1, 1836, recites that, "Whereas the President of the United States has expressed his
determination not to allow any preemptions or reservations, his desire being that the
whole Cherokee people should remove together and establish themselves in the
country provided for them west of the Mississippi river (article 1) : It is therefore
agreed that all preemption rights and reservations provided for in articles 12 and 13
shall be, and are hereby, relinquished and declared void." The treaty, in this shape,
was ratified on May 23, 1836 (see Indian Treaties, pp. 633-648, 1837).
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XI
SWIMMER 'A'YUN'INii
Hi— STORIES AND STORY TELLERS
Cherokee myths may be roughly classified as sacred myths, animal
stories, local legends, and historical traditions. To the first class
belong the genesis stories, dealing with the creation of the world, the
nature of the heavenly bodies and elemental forces, the origin of life
and death, the spirit world and the invisible beings, the ancient mon-
sters, and the hero-gods. It is almost certain that most of the myths
of this class are but disjointed fragments of an original complete gen-
esis and migration legend, which is now lost. With nearly every tribe
that has been studied we find such a sacred legend, preserved by the
priests of the tradition, who alone are privileged to recite and explain
it. and dealing with the origin and wanderings of the people from the
beginning of the world to the final settlement of the tribe in its home
territory. Among the best examples of such genesis traditions are
those recorded in the Walam Olum of the Delawares and Matthews'
Navaho Origin Legend. Others may be found in Cusick's History
of the Six Nations, Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, and the
author's Jicarilla Genesis. 1 The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other plains
tribes are known to have similar genesis myths.
The former existence of such a national legend among the Cherokee
is confirmed by Haywood, writing in 1823, who states on information
obtained from a principal man in the tribe that they had once a long
oration, then nearly forgotten, which recounted the history of their
wanderings from the time when they had been first placed upon the
earth by some superior power from above. Up to about the middle
of the la-t century this tradition was still recited at the annual Green-
corn dance. 2 Unlike mosl Indians the Cherokee are not conservative,
and even before the Revolution had so far lost their primitive customs
from contact with the whites that Adair, in 1775. calls them a nesl of
apostate hornets who for more than thirty years had been fast degen-
erating. 3 Whatever it may have been, their national legend is now lost
forever. The secret organizations that must have existed formerly
among the priesthood have also disappeared, and each man now works
independently according to his individual gifts and knowledge.
The sacred myths were not for every one, but only those might hear
who observed the proper form and ceremony. When John Ax and
■American Anthropologist, vol. xi. July. 1898. 3 Adair, American Indians, p. 81, ITT"'.
2 See page 20.
230 MYTHS OK THE CHEROKEE
other old men were boys, now some eighty years ago. the myth-keepers
and priests were accustomed to meet toe-ether at night in the asl.
or low-built log .sleeping house, to recite the traditions and discuss
their secret knowledge. At times those who desired instruction from
an adept in the sacred lore of the tribe met him by appointment in the
as?, where they sat up all night talking, with only the light of a small
tire burning in the middle of the floor. At daybreak the whole party
went down to the running stream, where the pupils or hearers of the
myths stripped themselves, and were scratched upon their naked skin
with a bone-tooth comb in the hands of the priest, after which they
waded out, facing the rising sun, and dipped seven times under the
water, while the priest recited prayers upon the bank. This purifica-
tory rite, observed more than a century ago by Adair, is also a part of
the ceremonial of the ballplay, the Green-corn dance, and, in fact,
every important ritual performance. Before beginning one of the
stories of the sacred class the informant would sometimes suggest
jokingly that the author first submit to being scratched and "go to
water."
As a special privilege a boy was sometimes admitted to the asl on
such occasions, to tend the fire, and thus had the opportunity to
listen to the stories and learn something of the secret rites. In this way
John Ax gained much of his knowledge, although he does not claim
to be an adept. As he describes it, the tire intended to heat the room —
for the nights are cold in the Cherokee mountains — was built upon the
ground in the center of the small house, which was not high enough
to permit a standing position, while the occupants sat in a circle around
it. In front of the tire was placed a large flat rock, and near it a pile
of pine knots or splints. When the tire had burned down to a bed of
coals, the boy lighted one or two of the pine knots and laid them upon
the rock, where they blazed with a bright light until nearly consumed,
when others were laid upon them, and so on until daybreak.
Sometimes the pine splints were set up crosswise, thus, >0<XX, in a
circle around the fire, with a break at the eastern side. They were
then lighted from one end and burned gradually around the circle,
fresh splints being set up behind as those in front were consumed.
Lawson describes this identical custom as witnessed at a dance among
the Waxhaw, on Catawba river, in 1701:
Now, to return to our state house, whither we were invited by the grandees. As
seen as we came into it, they placed our Englishmen near the king, it being my for-
tune to sit next him, having his great general or war captain on my other hand.
The house is as dark as a dungeon, and as hot as one of the Dutch stoves in Holland.
They had made a circular Are of split canes in the middle of the house, it was one
man's employment to add more split reeds to the one end as it consumed at the
other, there Vicing a small vacancy left to supply it with fuel. 1
i Lawson, Carolina, 67-68, reprint 1860.
THE MYTHIC ANIMALS 231
belong tlic shorter animal myths, which have
lost whatever sacred character they may once have had, and are told
now merely as hu rous explanations of certain animal peculiarities.
While the >acred myths have a constant bearing upon Eormulistic
prayers and observances, it is only in cure instances thai any rite or
custom is based upon an animal myth. Moreover, the sacred myths
are know n as a rule only to the professional priests or conjurers, while
the shorter animal stories are more or less familiar to nearly every-
one and are found in almost identical form among Cherokee, Creeks,
and other southern tribes.
The animals of the Cherokee myths, like the traditional hero-gods,
were larger and of more perfect type than their present representa-
tives. They had chiefs, councils, and townhouses, mingled with
human kind upon terms of perfect equality and spoke the same
language. In some unexplained manner they finally lefi this lower
world and ascended to Galun'lati, the world above, where they still
exist. The removal was not simultaneous, hut each animal chose his
own time. The animals that we know, small in size and poor in intel-
lect, came upon the earth later, and are not the descendants of the
mythic animals, hut only weak imitations. In one or two special eases.
however, the present creature is the descendant of a former monster.
Tree- and plants also were alive and could talk in the old days, and
had their place in council, but do not figure prominently in the myths.
Each animal had his appointed station and duty. Thus, the Wala'si
frog was the marshal and leader in the council, while the Rabbit was
the messenger to carry all public announcements, and usually led the
dance besides. He was also the great trickster and mischief maker, a
character which he bears in eastern and southern Indian myth gener-
ally, as well as in the southern negro stories. The bear figures as
having been originally a man, with human form and nature.
As with other tribes and countries, almost every prominent rock and
mountain, every dec]) bend in the river, in the old Cherokee country
has its accompanying legend. It may be a little story that can he
told in a paragraph, to account for some natural feature, or it may be
one chapter of a myth that has its sequel in a mountain a hundred
mile- away. As is usual when a people has lived for a long time in
the same country, nearly every important myth is localized, thus
assuming more definite character.
There is the usual number of anecdotes and stories of personal
adventure, some of them irredeemably vulgar, but historical traditions
are strangely wanting. The authentic records of unlettered peoples
are short at best, seldom going back much farther than the memories
of their oldest men; and although the Cherokee have been the most
important of the southern tribes, making wars and treaties for three
centuries with Spanish. English, French, and Americans. Iroquois,
232 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth. ANN. 19
Shawano, Catawba, and Creeks, there is little evidence of the fact in
their traditions. This condition may be due in part to the temper of
the Cherokee mind, which, as has been already stated, is accustomed
to look forward to new things rather than to dwell upon the past.
The lirst Cherokee war, with its stories of Agansta'ta and Ata-gul'kalii',
is absolutely forgotten. Of the long Revolutionary struggle they
have hardly a recollection, although they were constantly fighting
throughout the whole period and for several years after, and at one
time were brought to the verge of ruin by four concerted expeditious,
which ravaged their country simultaneously from different directions
and destroyed almost every one of their towns. Even the Creek war,
in which many of their warriors took a prominent part, was already
nearly forgotten some years ago. Beyond a few stories of encounters
with the Shawano and Iroquois there is hardly anything that can be
called history until well within the present century.
With some tribes the winter season and the night are the time for
telling stories, but to the Cherokee all times are alike. As our grand-
mothers begin, "'Once upon a time," so the Cherokee story-teller
introduces Ins narrative by saying: "This is what the old men told
me when I was a boy."
Not all tell the same stories, for in tribal lore, as in all other sorts
of knowledge, we find specialists. Some common minds take note
only of common things — little stories of the rabbit, the terrapin, and
the others, told to point a joke or amuse a child. Others dwell upon
the wonderful and supernatural — Tsul'kalu', Tsuwe'nahi, and the
Thunderers — and those sacred things to be told only with prayer
and purification. Then, again, there are still a few old warriors who
live in the memory of heroic days when there were wars with the
Seneca and the Shawano, and these men are the historians of the
tribe and the conservators of its antiquities.
The question of the origin of myths is one which affords abundant
opportunity for ingenious theories in the absence of any possibility
of proof. Those of the Cherokee are too far broken down ever to be
woven together again into any long-connected origin legend, such as
we tind with some tribes, although a few still exhibit a certain sequence
w r hich indicates that they once formed component parts of a cycle.
From the prominence of the rabbit in the animal stories, as well as in
those found among the southern negroes, an effort has been made to
establish for them a negro origin, regardless of the fact that the rab-
bit — the Great White Rabbit — is the hero-god, trickster, and wonder-
worker of all the tribes east of the Mississippi from Hudson bay to
the Gulf. In European folklore also the rabbit is regarded as some-
thing uncanny and half-supernatural, and even in far-off Korea he is
the central figure in the animal myths. Just why this should be so
is a question that inay be left to the theorist to decide. Among the
mooney] CONTACT WITH NEGROES 233
Algonquian tribes the name, wabos, seems to have been confounded
with that of the dawn, waban, so that the Great White Rabbit is
really the incarnation of the eastern dawn that brings light and life and
driven away the dark shadows which have held the world in chains.
The animal itself seems to he regarded by the Indians as the fitting
type of defenseless weakness protected and made safe by constantly
alert vigilance, and with a disposition, moreover, for turning up at
unexpected moments. The same characteristics would appeal as
strongly to the primitive mind of the negro. The very expression
which Harris puts into the mouth of Uncle Remus, '"In dem days
Brer Rabbit en his fambly wuz at the head er de gang w'en enny
racket wus en hand," 1 was paraphrased in the Cherokee language by
Suyeta in introducing his first rabbit story: " Tsi'stu wuliga 'ndtHtUn'
ii,,,',iuts,itiY tj, x.'i— the Rabbit was the leader of them all in mischief."
The expression struck the author so forcibly that the words wire
recorded as spoken.
In regard to the contact between the two races, by which such stories
could be borrowed from one by the other, it is not commonly known
that in all the southern colonies Indian slaves were bought and sold and
kept in servitude and worked in the fields side by side with negroes up
to the time of the Revolution. Not to go back to the Spanish period.
when such things were the order of the day, we find the Cherokee as
early as Kin:] complaining that their people were being kidnaped by
slave hunters. Hundreds of captured Tuscarora and nearly the whole
tribe of the Appalachee were distributed as slaves among the Carolina
colonists in the early part of the eighteenth century, while the Natchez
and others shared a similar fate in Louisiana, and as late at least as
1776 Cherokee prisoners of war were still sold to the highest bidder
for the same purpose. Atone time it was charged against the gov-
ernor of South Carolina that he was provoking a general Indian war
by his encouragement of slave hunts. Furthermore, as the coast tribes
dwindled they were compelled to associate and intermarry with the
negroes until they finally lost their identity ami were classed with
that race, so that a considerable proportion of the blood of the south-
ern negroes is unquestionably Indian.
The negro, with his genius for imitation and his love for stories.
especially of the comic variety, must undoubtedly have absorbed much
from tlie Indian in this way. while on the other hand the Indian, with
his pride of conservatism and his contempt for a subject race, would
have taken but little from the negro, and that little could not easily
have found its way back to the free tribes. Some of these animal
stories are common to widely separated tribes among whom there
can be no suspicion of negro influences. Thus the famous "tar baby"
story has variants, not only among the Cherokee, but also in New
1 Harris, J. C, Uncle Rei . p. 29; New Y<>rk, 1886.
234 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.axn.19
Mexico. Washington, and southern Alaska — wherever, in fact, the
pifion or the pine supplies enough gum to be molded into a ball for
Indian uses — while the incident of the Rabbit dining' the Bear is found
with nearly every tribe from Nova Scotia to the Pacific. The idea that
such stories are necessarily of negro origin is due largely to the com-
mon but mistaken notion that the Indian has no sense of humor.
In many cases it is not necessary to assume borrowing from either
side, the myths being such as would naturally spring up in any part of
the world among primitive people accustomed to observe the charac-
teristics of animals, which their religious system regarded as differing
in no essential from human kind, save only in outward form. Thus
in Europe and America the terrapin has been accepted as the type of
plodding slowness, while the rabbit, with his sudden dash, or the deer
with his bounding stride, is the type of speed. What more natural
than that the story-teller should set one to race against the other, with
the victory in favor of the patient striver against the self-confident
boaster? The idea of a hungry wolf or other beast of prey luring
his victims by the promise of a new song or dance, during which they
must close their eyes, is also one that would easily occur among any
primitive people whose chief pastime is dancing. 1
On the other hand, such a conception as that of Flint and the Rabbit
could only be the outgrowth of a special cosmogonic theology, though
now indeed broken and degraded, and it is probable that many myths
told now only for amusement are really worn down fragments of
ancient sacred traditions. Thus the story just noted appears in a dif-
ferent dress among the Iroquois as a part of their great creation myth.
The Cherokee being a detached tribe of the Iroquois, we may expect to
find among the latter, if it he not already too late, the explanation and
more perfect statement of some things which are obscure in the Cher-
okee myths. It must not be forgotten, however, that the Indian, like
other men, does some things for simple amusement, and it is useless
to look for occult meanings where none exist.
Except as to the local traditions and a few others which are obviously
the direct outgrowth of Cherokee conditions, it is impossible to fix a
definite starting point for the myths. It would be unwise to assert
that even the majority of them originated within the tribe. The
Cherokee have strains of Creek, Catawba, Uchee, Natchez, Iroquois,
Osage, and Shawano blood, and such admixture implies contact more
or less intimate and continued. Indians are great wanderers, and a
1 Fur ;i presentation -if the African and European argument see Harris, Nights with Uncle Remus.
introduction, 1883; and Uncle Remus. His Songs and His Sayings, introduction, 1886; Gerber,
Uncle Remus Traced to the Old World, in Journal of American Folklore, vi, p. 23, October, 1893. In
regard to tribal dissemination of myths see Boas, Dissemination of Tales among the Natives of North
America, in Journal of American Folklore, IV, p. 12, January, 1891; TheGrowthof Indian Mythologies,
in the same journal, IX, p. 32, January ls>.ni; Northern Elements in the Mythology of the Navaho, in
American Anthropologist, x. p. 11. November, ls'JT; introduction to Teit's Traditions of the Thompson
River Indians. 1898. IT Boas has probably devoted more study to the subject than any other anthro-
pologist, and his personal observations include tribes from the Arctic regions to the Columbia.
hooney] OBIGIH OF THE MYTHS 235
myth can travel as far as a redstone pipe or a string of wampum. It
was customary, as it still is i<> a limited extent in the West, for large
parties, sometimes even a whole band or village, to make lime- visits
to other tribes, dancing, feasting, trading, and exchanging stories w itli
their friends for weeks or months at a time, with the expectation that
their hosts would return the visit within the next summer. Regular
trade routes crossed the continent from east to west and from north to
south, and when the subject has been fully investigated it will lie found
that this intertribal commerce was as constant and well recognized a
part of Indian life as is our own railroad traffic today. The very
existence of a trade jargon or a sign language is proof of intertribal
relations over wide areas. Their political alliances also were often
far-reaching, for Pontiac welded into a warlike confederacy all the
trilies from the Atlantic border to the head of the Mississippi, while
the emissaries of the Shawano prophet carried the story of his rev-
elations throughout the whole region from the Florida coast to the
Saskatchewan.
In view of these facts it is as useless to attempt to trace the origin
of every myth as to claim a Cherokee authorship for them all. From
\\ hat we know of the character of the Shawano, their tendency toward
the ceremonial and the mystic, and their close relations with the
Cherokee, it may he inferred that some of the myths originated with
that tribe. We should naturally expect also to find close correspond-
ence with the myths of the Creeks and other southern tribes within
the former area of the Mobilian trade language. The localization at
home of all the more important myths indicates a long residence in
the country. As the majority of those here given belong to the half
dozen counties still familiar to the East Cherokee, we may guess how
many attached to the afieient territory of the tribe arc now irrecov-
erably lost.
Contact with the white race seems to have produced very little
impression on the tribal mythology, and not more than three or four
stories current among the Cherokee can he assigned to a Caucasian
source. These have not been reproduced here, for the reason that
they are plainly European, and the author has chosen not to follow the
example of some collectors who have assumed that every tale told in an
Indina language is necessarily an Indian story. Scores recorded in col-
lections from the North and West are nothing more than variants from
the celebrated Hausmarchen, as told by French trappers and voyageurs
to their Indian campmates and halfbreed children. It might perhaps
be thought that missionary influence would be evident in the genesis
tradition, but such is not the case. The Bible story kills the Indian
tradition, and there is no amalgamation. It is hardly necessary tosay
that stories of a great fish which swallows a man and of a great Hood
236 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
which destroys a people are found the world over. The supposed
Cherokee hero-god, Wiisi, described by one writer as so remarkably
resembling the great Hebrew lawgiver is in fact that great teacher
himself, Wasi being the Cherokee approximate for Moses, and the
good missionary who first recorded the story was simply listening to
a chapter taken by his convert from the Cherokee testament. The
whole primitive pantheon of the Cherokee is still preserved in their
sacred formulas.
As compared with those from some other tribes the Cherokee myths
are clean. For picturesque imagination and wealth of detail they
rank high, and some of the wonder Stories may challenge those of
Europe and India. The numerous parallels furnished will serve to
indicate their relation to the general Indian system. Unless otherwise
noted, every myth here given has been obtained directly from the
Indians, and in nearly every case has been verified from several
sources.
"I know not how the truth may be,
I tell the tale as 'twas told to me."
First and chief in the list of story tellers comes A'yun'ini, "Swim-
mer," from whom nearly three-fourths of the whole number were
originally obtained, together with nearly as large a proportion of the
whole body of Cherokee material now in possession of the author.
The collection could not have been made without his help, and now
that he is gone it can never be duplicated. Born about 1835, shortly
before the Removal, he grew up under the instruction of masters to be
a priest, doctor, and keeper of tradition, so that he was recognized as
an authority throughout the band and by such a competent outside
judge as Colonel Thomas. He served through the war as second
sergeant of the Cherokee Company A, Sixty-ninth North Carolina
Confederate Infantry. Thomas Legion. He was prominent in the
local affairs of the band, and no Green-corn dance, ballplay, or other
tribal function was ever considered complete without his presence and
active assistance. A genuine aboriginal antiquarian and patriot,
proud of his people and their ancient system, he took delight in
recording in his native alphabet the songs and sacred formulas of
priests and dancers and the names of medicinal plants and the pre-
scriptions with which they were compounded, while his mind was a
storehouse of Indian tradition. To a happy descriptive style he added
a musical voice for the songs and a peculiar faculty for imitating
the characteristic cry of bird or beast, so that to listen to one of his
recitals was often a pleasure in itself, even to one who understood not a
word of the language. He spoke no English, and to the day of his death
clung to the moccasin and turban, together with the rattle, his badge
of authority. He died in March, 1S99, aged about sixty-five, and was
moomvj STORY-TELLERS 237
buried like a true Cherokee on the slope of a forest-clad mountain.
Peace to his ashes and sorrow for his going, for with him perished half
the tradition of a people.
Next in order comes the name <>f Itagu'nahi. better known a^ John
A\. born about L800 and now consequently just touching the centurj
mark, being the oldest man of the band. He has a distinct recollec-
tion of tin' Creek war, at which time he was about twelve years of age,
and was already married and a father when the lands east of Xantahala
were sold by the treaty of L819. Although not a professional priest
or doctor, he was recognized, before age had dulled his faculties, as
an authority upon all relating to tribal custom, and was an expert in
the making of rattles, wands, and other ceremonial paraphernalia. ( >f
a poetic and imaginative temperament, he cared most for the wonder
stories, of the giant Tsul'kalu', of the great Uktena or of the invisible
spirit people, but he had also a keen appreciation of the humorous
animal stories. He speaks no English, and with his erect spare figure
and piercing eye is a tine specimen of the old-time Indian. Notwith-
standing his great age he walked without other assistance than his
stick to the last ball game, where he watched every run with the closest
interest, and would have attended the dance the night before but for
the interposition of friends.
Suyeta, "The Chosen One," who preaches regularly as a Baptist
minister to an Indian congregation, does not deal much with the Indian
supernatural, perhaps through deference to his clerical obligations.
but has a good memory and liking for rabbit stories and others of the
same class. He served in the Confederate army during the war as
fourth sergeant in Company A, of the Sixty-ninth North Carolina.
and is now a well-preserved man of about sixty-two. He speaks no
English, but by an ingenious system of his own has learned to use a
concordance for verifying references in his Cherokee bible. He is
also a first-class carpenter and mason.
Another principal informant was Ta'gwadihf, "Catawba-killer," of
Cheowa, who died a few years ago, aged about seventy. He was a
doctor and made no claim to special knowledge of myths or ceremonials.
but was aide to furnish several valuable stories, besides confirmatorj
evidence for a large number obtained from other sources.
Besides these may be named, among the East Cherokee, the late
Chief N. J. Smith; Sal&'ll, mentioned elsewhere, who died about L895;
Tsesa'ni or Jessan, who also served in the war: Aya'sta. one of the
principal conservatives among the women; and James and David
Blythe, younger men of mixed blood, with an English education, but
inheritors of a large share of Indian lore from their father, who was
a recognized leader of ceremony.
Among informants in the western Cherokee Nation the principal was
James D. Watford, known to the Indians a- Tsuskwanun'nawa'ta,
238 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
"Worn-out-blanket," a mixed-blood speaking- and writing both lan-
guages, born in the old Cherokee Nation near the site of the pres-
ent Clarkesville, Georgia, in 1806. and dying- when about ninety
years of age at his home in the eastern part of the Cherokee Nation,
adjoining the Seneca reservation. The name figures prominently in
the early history of North Carolina and Georgia. His grandfather,
Colonel Wafford, was an officer in the American Revolutionary army,
and shortly after the treaty of Hopewell, in 17S5, established a colony
known as " Watford's settlement," in npper Georgia, on territory which
was afterward found to be within the Indian boundary and was acquired
by special treaty purchase in 1801. His name is appended, as witness
for the state of Georgia, to the treaty of Holston, in 1794. ' On his
mother's side Mr Wafford was of mixed Cherokee, Natchez, and white
blood, she being a cousin of Sequoya. He was also remotely con-
nected with Cornelius Dougherty, the first trader established among
the Cherokee. In the course of his long life he tilled many positions
of trust and honor among his people. In his youth he attended
the mission school at Valleytown under Reverend Evan Jones, and
just before the adoption of the Cherokee alphabet he finished the
translation into phonetic Cherokee spelling of a Sunday school speller
noted in Pilling' s Iroquoin Bibliography. In 1821 he was the census
enumerator for that district of the Cherokee Nation embracing upper
Hiwassee river, in North Carolina, with Nottely and Toccoa in the
adjoining portion of Georgia. His fund of Cherokee geographic
information thus acquired was found to be invaluable. He was one of
the two commanders of the largest detachment of emigrants at the
time of the removal, and his name appears as a councilor for the western
Nation in the Cherokee Almanac for 1846. When employed by the
author at Tahlequah in 1891 his mind was still clear and his memory
keen. Being of practical bent, he was concerned chiefly with tribal
history, geography, linguistics, and every-day life and custom, on all
of which subjects his knowledge was exact and detailed, but there were
few myths for which he was not able to furnish confirmatory testi-
mony. Despite his education he was a firm believer in the Niinne'hi,
and several of the best legends connected with them were obtained
from him. His death takes from the Cherokee one of the last connect-
ing links between the present and the past.
1 See contemporary notice in the Historical Sketch.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOG
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XII
JOHN AX ilTAGU'NUHh
IV— THE MYTHS
( Josmogonic Myths
i. HOW THE WORLD WAS MADE
The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended
at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from
the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and
worn out. the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth
sink down into the ocean, and all will he water again. The Indians
are afraid of this.
When all was water, the animals were above in Galun'latI, beyond
the arch; but it was very much crowded, and they were wanting more
room. They wondered what was below the water, and at last Dayu-
ni'si, "Beaver's Grandchild," the little Water-beetle, offered to go and
see if it could learn. It darted in every direction over the surface of
the water, hut could find no firm place to rest. Then it dived to the
bottom and came up with some soft mud. which began to grow and
spread on every side until it became the island which we call the
earth. It was afterward fastened to the sky with four cords, but no
one remembers who did this.
At first the earth was Hat and very soft and wet. The animals were
anxious to get down, and sent out different birds to see if it was yet
dry, but they found no place to alight and came back again to Galun'-
lati. At last it seemed to be time, and they sent out the Buzzard and
told him to go and make ready for them. This was the Great Buz-
zard, the father of all the buzzards we see now. He flew all over the
earth, low down near the ground, and it was still soft. When he
reached the Cherokee country, he was very tired, and his wings began
to flap and strike the ground, and wherever they struck the earth
there was a valley, and where they turned up again then' was a
mountain. When the animals above saw this, they were afraid that
the whole world would he mountains, so they called him back, bul I lie
Cherokee country remains full of mountains to this day.
When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still
dark, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go every day across
the island from east to west, just overhead. It was too hot this way,
and T.siska'gili'. the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red,
so that his meat was spoiled; ami the Cherokee do not eat it. The
240 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.
conjurers put the sun another hand-breadth higher in the air, but it was
still too hot. They raised it another time, and another, until it was
seven handbreadths high and just under the sky arch. Then it was
right, and they left it so. This is why the conjurers call the highest
place (julkwa'gine Di'galuiYlatiyiifi', "the seventh height," because it is
seven hand-breadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes along
under this arch, and returns at night on the upper side to the starting
place.
There is another world under this, and it is like ours in every-
thing — animals, plants, and people — save that the seasons are different.
The streams that come down from the mountains are the trails by
which we reach this underworld, and the springs at their heads are
the doorways by which we enter it, but to do this one must fast and
go to water and have one of the underground people for a guide. We
know that the seasons in the underworld are different from ours,
because the water in the springs is always warmer in winter and
cooler in summer than the outer air.
When the animals and plants were first made — we do not know by
whom — they were told to watch and keep awake for seven nights,
just as young men now fast and keep awake when they pray to their
medicine. They tried to do this, and nearly all were awake through
the first night, but the next night several dropped off to sleep, and the
third night others were asleep, and then others, until, on the seventh
night, of all the animals only the owl, the panther, and one or two
more were still awake. To these were given the power to see and to
go about in the dark, and to make prey of the birds and animals which
must sleep at night. Of the trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce,
the holly, and the laurel were awake to the end, and to them it was
given to be always green and to be greatest for medicine, but to the
others it was said: "Because you have not endured to the end you
shall lose your hair every winter. 1 '
Men came after the animals and plants. At first there were only a \
brother and sister until he struck her with a fish and told her to mul- \
tiply, and so it was. In seven days a child was born to her, and
thereafter every seven days another, and they increased very fast until J
there was danger that the world could not keep them. Then it was
made that a woman should have only one child in a year, and it has
been so ever since.
2. THE FIRST FIRE
In the beginning there was no fire, and the world was cold, until the
Thunders (Ani'-Hyun'tikwala'ski), who lived up in Galun'lati. sent their
lightning and put fire into the bottom of a hollow sycamore tree which
grew on an island. The animals knew it was there, because they could
see the smoke coming out at the top, but they could not get to it on
i my; THE FIRST BTRE 241
account of the water, so they held a council to decide what to do. This
was a long time ago.
Every animal thai could fly or swim was anxious to go after the tiiv.
The Raven offered, and because he was so large and strong they thought
he could surely do the work, so he was sent first. He flew high and
Ear across the water and alighted on the sycamore tree, but while he
was wondering what to do next, the heat had scorched all his feathers
black, and he was frightened and came back without the fire. Tin'
little Screech-owl ( Wa'huhu') volunteered to go, and reached the place
safely, lint while he was looking down into the hollow tree a blast of
hot air came up and Dearly burned out his eyes. He managed to fly
home as best he could, but it was a long time before he could see well,
and his eyes are red to this day. Then the HootingOwl ( WgvJcu') and
the Horned Owl (TskiW) went, but by the time they got to the hollow
tree the tire was burning so fiercely that the smoke nearly blinded
them, and the ashes carried up by the wind made white rings about
their eyes. They had to come home again without the fire, but with
all their rubbing they were never able to get rid of the white rings.
Now no more of the birds would venture, and so the little Uksu'hi
snake, the black racer, said he would go through the water and bring
back some tire. He swam across to the island and crawled through
the grass to the tree, and went in by a small hole at the bottom. The
heat and smoke were too much for him, too, and after dodging about
blindly over the hot ashes until hi' was almost on tire himself he man-
aged by good luck to get out again at the same hole, but his body had
been scorched black, and he has ever since had the habit of darting
and doubling on his track as if trying to escape from close quarters.
He came back, and the great blacksnake, Gule'gi, "The Climber."
offered to go for tire. He swam over to the island and climbed up the
tree on the outside, as the blacksnake always does, but when he put
his head down into the hole the smoke choked him so that he fell into
the burning stump, and before he could climb out again he was as
black as the Uksu'hi.
Now they held another council, for still there was no tire, and the
world was cold, but birds, snakes, and four-footed animals, all had
some excuse for not going, because they were all afraid to venture
near the burning sycamore, until at last Kanane'skI Amai'vehi (the
Water Spider) said she would go. This is not the water spider that
looks like a mosquito, but the other one. with black downy hair and
red stripes on her body. She can run on top of the water or dive to
the bottom, so there would be no trouble to get over to the island, but
the question was. How could she bring back the tire; "•I'll manage
that," said the Water Spider; so she spun a thread from her bodj and
wove it into a tusti bowl, which she fastened on her back. Then she
crossed over to the island and through the grass to where the tire was
19 eth— 01 1C
242 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
still burning. She put one little coal of fire into her bowl, and came
back with it, and ever since we have had fire, and the Water Spider still
keeps her tusti bowl.
3. KANA'TI AND SELU: THE ORIGIN OF GAME AND CORN
When I was a boy this is what the old men told me they had heard
when they were boys.
Long years ago, soon after the world was made, a hunter and his
wife lived at Pilot knob with their only child, a little boy. The
father's name was Kana'ti (The Lucky Hunter), and his wife was
called Selu (Corn). No matter when Kana'ti went into the wood, he
never failed to bring back a load of game, which his wife would cut
up and prepare, washing off the blood from the meat in the river near
the house. The little boy used to play down by the river every day.
and one morning the old people thought the} 7 heard laughing and talk-
ing in the bushes as though there were two children there. When the
boy came home at night his parents asked him who had been playing
with him all day. "He comes out of the water," said the boy. "and
be calls himself my elder brother. He says his mother was cruel to
him and threw him into the river." Then the} 7 knew that the strange
boy had sprung from the blood of the game which Selu had washed
off at the river's edge.
Every day when the little boy went out to play the other would join
him. but as he always went back again into the water the old people
never had a chance to see him. At last one evening Kana'ti said to his
son, "Tomorrow, when the other boy comes to play, get him to wrestle
with you, and when you have your arms around him hold on to him
and call for us." The boy promised to do as he was told, so the next
day as soon as his playmate appeared he challenged him to a wrestling
match. The other agreed at once, but as soon as they had their arms
around each other, Kana'ti's boy began to scream for his father. The
old folks at once came running down, and as soon as the Wild Boy saw
them he struggled to free himself and cried out, "Let me go; you
threw me away!" but his brother held on until the parents leached the
spot, when they seized the Wild Boy and took him home with them.
They kept him in the house until they had tamed him, but he was
always wild and artful in his disposition, and was the leader of his
brother in every mischief. It was not long until the old people dis-
covered that he had magic powers, and they called him I'nage-utasun'ln
(He-who-grew-up-wild).
Whenever Kana'ti went into the mountains he always brought back
a fat buck or doe, or maybe a couple of turkeys. One day the Wild
Boy said to his brother, ''I wonder where our father gets all that
game; let's follow him next time and find out." A few days afterward
Kana'ti took a bow and some feathers in his hand and started off
UOONEY] KANATI AMI SKI.T 243
toward the west. The boys waited a little while and then went afti r
him, keeping out <d' sight until they saw him go into a swamp where
there were a great many of the small reeds that hunters use to make
arrowshafts. Then the Wild Boy changed bimself into a puff of
l>ird's down, w hich the wind took up and carried until it alighted upon
Kana'ti's shoulder just as he entered the swamp, but Kana'ti knew
nothing about it. Theold man «ut reeds, fitted the feathers to them and
made some arrows, and the Wild Boy- in his other shape thought,
••I wonder what those things are for?" When Kana'ti had his arrows
finished he came out of the swamp and went on again. The wind blew
the down from his shoulder, and it fell in the woods, when the Wild
Boy took his right shape again and went back and told his brother
what he had seen. Keeping Out of sight of their father, they followed
him up the mountain until he stopped at a certain place and lifted a
large rock. At once there ran out a buck, which Kana'ti shot, and
then lifting it upon his back he started for home again. "Oho!"
exclaimed the boys, "he keeps all the deer shut up in that hole, and
whenever he wants meat he just Lets one out and kills it with those
things he made in the swamp." They hurried and reached home before
their father, who had the heavy deer to carry, and he never knew that
they had followed.
A few days later the hoys went back to the swamp, (ait some reeds,
and made seven arrows, and then started up the mountain to where
their father kept the game. When they got to the place, they raised
the rock and a deercame running out. .lust as they drew hack to shoot
it. another came out. and then another and another, until the boys got
confused and forgot what they were about. In those days all the deer
had their tails hanging down like other animals, but as a buck was
running past the Wild Roy struck its tail with his arrow so that it
pointed upward. The boys thought this good sport, and when the
next oik' ran past the Wild Boy struck its tail so that it stood straight
up. and his brother struck the next one so hard with his arrow that
the deer's tail was almost curled over his back. The deer carries his
tail this way ever since. The deer came running past until the last
one had come out of the hole and escaped into the forest. Then came
droves of raccoons, rabbits, and all the other four-footed animals — all
hut the hear, because there was no bear then. Last came great flocks
of turkeys, pigeons, and partridges that darkened the air like a (loud
and made such a noise with their wings that Kana'ti. sitting at home,
heard the sound like distant thunder on the mountains and said to him-
self. "• My bad boys have got into trouble; T must go and see what they
are doing.-'
So he went up the mountain, and when he came to the place where
he kept the game he found the two boys standing by the rock, and all
the birds and animals were g-oue. Kana'ti was furious, but without
244 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
saving a word he went down into the cave and kicked the covers off
four jars in one corner, when out swarmed bedbugs, fleas, lice, and
gnats, and got all over the boys. They screamed with pain and fright
and tried to beat off the insects, but the thousands of vermin crawled
over them and bit and stung them until both dropped down nearly
dead. Kana'ti stood looking on until he thought they had been pun-
ished enough, when he knocked off the vermin and made the boys a
talk. "Now, you rascals," said he, "you have always had plenty to
eat and never had to work for it. Whenever you were hungry all I
had to do was to come up here and get a deer or a turkey and bring it
home for your mother to cook; but now you have let out all the ani-
mals, and after this when you want a deer to eat you will have to hunt
all over the woods for it, and then maybe not find one. Go home now
to your mother, while I see if I can find something to eat for supper."
When the boys got home again they were very tired and hungry and
asked their mother for something to eat. "There is no meat," said
Selu, " but wait a little while and I'll get you something.''' So she
took a basket and started out to the storehouse. This storehouse was
built upon poles high up from the ground, to keep it out of the reach
of animals, and there was a ladder to climb up by, and one door, but
no other opening. Every day when Selu got ready to cook the dinner
she would go out to the storehouse with a basket and bring it back
full of corn and beans. The boys had never been inside the storehouse,
so wondered where all the corn and beans could come from, as the
house was not a very large one; so as soon as Selu went out of the
door the Wild Boy said to his brother, "Let's go and see what she
does." They ran around and climbed up at the back of the storehouse
and pulled out a piece of clay from between the logs, so that they
could look in. There they saw Selu standing in the middle of the room
with the basket in front of her on the floor. Leaning over the basket,
she rubbed her stomach — so — and the basket was half full of corn.
Then she rubbed under her armpits — so — and the basket was full to
the top with beans. The boys looked at each other and said, "This
will never do; our mother is a witch. If we eat any of that it will
poison us. We must kill her."
When the boys came back into the house, she knew their thoughts
before they spoke. " So you are going to kill me? " said Selu. " Yes,"
said the boys, "you are a witch." "Well," said their mother, "when
you have killed me, clear a large piece of ground in front of the house
and drag my body seven times around the circle. Then drag me seven
times over the ground inside the circle, and stay up all night and watch,
and in the morning you will have plenty of corn." The boys killed
her with their clubs, and cut off her head and put it up on the roof of
the house with her face turned to the west, and told her to look for her
husband. Then thev set to work to clear the ground in front of the
i keyj kana'ti AND ski.t 245
house, bu< instead of clearing the whole piece they cleared onlj seven
little spots. This is why corn now grows only in a few places instead
01 over the whole world. They dragged the body of Selu around the
circle, and wherever her blood fell on the ground the corn sprang up.
But instead of dragging her body seven times across the ground they
dragged ii over onlj twice, which is the reason the Indians still work
their crop but twice. The two brothers sat up and watched their coin
all night, and in the morning it was full grown and ripe.
When Kana'ti came home at last, he looked around, but could not see
Selu anywhere, and asked the boys where was their mother. "She was
a witch, and we killed her." said the boys; •'there is her head up there
on top of the house." "When he saw his wife's head on the roof, he
was very angry, and said, ''I won't stay with you any longer: I am
going to the Wolf people." So he started off, but before, he had gone
far the Wild Boy changed himself again to a tuft of down, which fell
on Kana'tfs shoulder. When Kana'ti reached the settlement of the
Wolf people, they were holding a council in the townhouse. He went
in and sat down with the tuft of bird's down on his shoulder, but he
never noticed it. When the Wolf chief asked him his business, he
said: " I have two bad boys at home, and I want you to go in seven
days from now and play ball against them." Although Kana'ti spoke
as though he wanted them to play a game of ball, the Wolves knew
that he meant for them to go and kill the two boys. They promised to
go. Then the bird's down blew off from Kana'tfs shoulder, and the
smoke carried it up through the hole in the roof of the townhouse.
When it came down on the ground outside, the Wild Boy took his right
shape again and went home and told his brother all that he had heard
in the townhouse. But when Kana'ti left the Wolf people, he did not
return home, but went on farther.
The boys then began to get ready for the Wolves, and the Wild
Boy —the magician — told his brother what to do. They ran around
the house in a wide circle until they had made a trail all around it
excepting on the side from which the Wolves would come, where they
left a small open space. Then they made four large bundles of arrows
and placed them at four different points on the outside of the circle,
after which they hid themselves in the woods and waited for the
Wolves. In a day or two a whole party of Wolves came and sur-
rounded the house to kill the boys. The Wolves did not notice the
trail around the house, because they came in where the boys had left
the opening, but the moment they went inside the circle the trail
changed to a high brush fence and shut them in. Then the boys on
the outside took their arrows and began shooting them down, and as
the \\ olves could not jump over the fence they were all killed, excepting
a few that escaped through the opening into a great swamp close by.
The boys ran around the swamp, and a circle of tire sprang up in their
246 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
tracks and set fire to the grass and bushes and burned up nearly all
the other Wolves. Only two or three got away, and from these have
come all the wolves that are now in the world.
Soon afterward some strangers from a distance, who had heard that
the brothers had a wonderful grain from which they made bread, came
to ask for some, for none but Selu and her family had ever known
corn before. The boys gave them seven grains of corn, which they
told them to plant the next night on their way home, sitting up all
night to watch the corn, which would have seven ripe ears in the
morning. These they were to plant the next night and watch in
the same way, and so on every night until they reached home, when
they would have corn enough to supply the whole people. The
strangers lived seven days' journey away. They took the seven grains
and watched all through the darkness until morning, when the}' saw
seven tall stalks, each stalk bearing a ripened ear. They gathered the
tars and went on their way. The next night they planted all their
corn, and guarded it as before until daybreak, when they found an
abundant increase. But the way was long and the sun was hot, and
the people grew tired. On the last night before reaching home they
fell asleep, and in the morning the corn they had planted had not even
sprouted. The}' brought with them to their settlement what corn
they had left and planted it, and with care and attention were able to
raise a crop. But ever since the corn must be watched and tended
through half the year, which before would grow and ripen in a night.
As Kana'ti did not return, the boys at last concluded to go and find
him. The Wild Boy took a gaming wheel and rolled it toward the
Darkening land. In a little while the wheel came rolling back, and
the boys knew their father was not there. He rolled it to the south
and to the north, and each time the wheel came back to him. and they
knew their father was not there. Then he rolled it toward the Sun-
land, and it did not return. "Our father is there," said the Wild
Boy, "let us go and find him." So the two brothers set off toward
the east, and after traveling a longtime they came upon Kana'ti walk-
ing along with a little dog by his side. "You bad hoys," said their
father, " have you come here V "'Yes," they answered, "we always
accomplish what we start out to do — we are men." "This clog over-
took me four days ago," then said Kana'ti, but the boys knew that the
dog was the wheel which they had sent after him to find him. "Well,"
said Kana'ti, " as you have found me, we may as well travel together,
but I shall take the lead."
Soon they came to a swamp, and Kana'ti told them there was some-
thing dangerous there and they must keep away from it. He went
on ahead, but as soon as he was out of sight the Wild Boy said to
his brother. "Come and let us see what is in the swamp." They
went in together, and in the middle of the swamp they found a large
mooney] kana'ti and selu -J47
panther asleep. The Wild Hoy got <>ut an arrow and shot the panther
in the side of the head. The panther turned his head and the other
boj shot him on that side. He turned his head away again and the
two brothers sho( together fust, fust, tust! But the panther was nol
hurt by the arrow- and paid no more attention to the boys. They
came oul of the swamp and soon overtook Kana'ti. waiting for them.
"Did you find it?" asked Kana'ti. "Yes," said the boys, "we found
it. but it never hurl us. We are men." Kana'ti was surprised, but
said nothing, and they went on again.
After a while lie turned to them and said. "Now you must lie careful.
We are coming to a tribe called the An&da'duiitaski (" Roasters," i. e.,
cannibals), and if thej gel you they will put you into a pot and feast on
you."' Then lie went on ahead. Soon the boys eanie to a tree which
ha<l Keen struck by lightning, and the Wild Hoy directed his brother to
gather some of the splinters from the tree and told him what to do
with them. In a little while they came to the settlement of the can-
nibals, who, as soon as they saw the hoys, came running out, crying,
"Good, here are two nice fat strangers. Now we'll have a grand
feast!" They caught the hoys and dragged them into the townhouse,
and sent word to all the people of the settlement to come to the feast.
They made up a great tire, put water into a large pot and set it to
boiling, and then seized the Wild Hoy and put him down into it. His
brother was not in the least frightened ami made no attempt to escape,
hut quietly knelt down and began putting the splinters into the tire,
as if to make it burn better. When the cannibals thought the meat
was about ready they lifted the pot from the fire, and that instant a
blinding light rilled the townhouse, and the lightning began to dart
from one side" to the other, striking down the cannibals until not one
of them was left alive. Then the lightning went upthrough the smoke-
hole, and the next moment there were the two boys standing outside
the townhouse as though nothing had happened. They went on and
soon met Kana'ti. who seemed much surprised to see them, and said,
••What! are you here again?" "O, yes. we never give up. We are
great men!" "What did the cannibals do toj'OU?" "We nut them
and they brought us to their townhouse. but they never hurt u-.'*
Kana'ti said nothing more, and they went on.
* * -x- -x * -::- *
He soon got nut of sight of the boys, but they kept on until they
came to the end of the world, where the sun comes out. The ski was
just coming down when they got there, but they waited until it went
up again, and then they went through and climbed up on tile other
side. There they found Kana'ti and Selu sitting together. The old
folk received them kindly and were glad to see them, telling them
they might Stay there a while, but then they must go to live where the
sun goes down. The boy- stayed with their parents seven day- and
248 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.anx.19
then went on toward the Darkening land, where the}' are now. We
call them Anisga'ya Tsunsdi' (The Little Men), and when they talk
to each other we hear low rolling thunder in the west.
After Kana'ti's boys had let the deer out from the cave where their
father used to keep them, the hunters tramped about in the woods for
a long time without finding any game, so that the people were very
hungry. At last they heard that the Thunder Boys were now living
in the far west, beyond the sun door, and that if they were sent for
they could bring back the game. So they sent messengers for them,
and the boys came and sat down in the middle of the townhouse and
began to sing.
At the first song there was a roaring sound like a strong wind in
the northwest, and it grew louder and nearer as the boys sang on,
until at the seventh song a whole herd of deer, led by a large buck,
came out from the woods. The boys had told the people to be ready
with their bows and arrows, and when the song was ended and all the
deer were close around the townhouse, the hunters shot into them and
killed as many as they needed before the herd could get back into
the timber.
Then the Thunder Boys went back to the Darkening land, but
before the}' left they taught the people the seven songs with which to
call up the deer. It all happened so long ago that the songs are now
forgotten — all but two, which the hunters still sing whenever they go
after deer.
WAHNENAUH] VERSION
After the world had been brought up from under the water, ''They
then made a man and a woman and led them around the edge of the
island. On arriving at the starting place they planted some corn, and
then told the man and woman to go around the way they had been
led. This they did. and on returning they found the corn up and
growing nicely. They were then told to continue the circuit. Each
trip consumed more time. At last the corn was ripe and ready for use. 1 '
* * * * * * *
Another story is told of how sin came into the world. A man and
a woman reared a large family of children in comfort and plenty, with
very little trouble about providing food for them. Every morning
the father went forth and very soon returned bringing with him a
deer, or a turkey, or some other animal or fowl. At the same time
the mother went out and soon returned with a large basket filled with
ears of corn which she shelled and pounded in a mortar, thus making
meal for bread.
When the children grew up, seeing with what apparent ease food
was provided for them, they talked to each other about it. wondering
that they never saw such things as their parents brought in. At last
MOONEY] KANA'TI AM) SELO 249
one proposed to watch when their parents wenl out and to follow
them.
Accordingly nexl morning the plan was carried out. Those who
followed the father saw him stop at a short distance from the cabin
and turn over a large stone that appeared to he carelessly leaned
against another. On looking closely they saw an entrance to a large
cave, and in it were many different kinds of animals and birds, suchas
their father had sometimes brought in for food. The man standing at
the entrance called a deer, which was lying at some distance and hack
of some other animals. It rose immediately as it heard the call and
came close up to him. He picked it up, closed the mouth of the cave,
and returned, not once seeming to suspect what his sons had done.
When the old man was fairly out of sight, his sons, rejoicing how
they had outwitted him, left their hiding place and went to the cave.
saying they would show the old folks that they, too, could bring in
something. They moved the stone away, though it was very heavy
and they were obliged to use all their united strength. When the cave
was opened, the animals, instead of waiting to be picked up, all made
a rush for the entrance, and leaping past the frightened and bewildered
boys, scattered in all directions and disappeared in the wilderness,
while the guilty offenders could do nothing hut gaze in stupified
amazement as they saw them escape. There were animals of all kinds,
large and small — buffalo, deer. elk. antelope, raccoons, and squirrels;
even catamounts and panthers, wolves and foxes, and many others,
all fleeing together. At the same time birds of every kind were seen
emerging from the opening, all in the same wild confusion as the quad-
ruped: — turkeys, geese, swans, ducks, quails, eagles, hawks, and owls.
Those who followed the mother saw her enter a small cabin, which
they had never seen before, and close the door. The culprits found a
small crack through which they could peer. They saw the woman
place a basket on the ground and standing over it shake herself vigor-
ously, jumping up and down, when lo and behold! large ears of corn
began to fall into the basket. When it was well tilled she took it up
and, placing it on her head, came out, fastened the door, and prepared
their breakfast as usual. When the meal had Keen finished in silence
the man spoke to hi~ children, telling them that he was aware of what
they had done: that now he must die and they would be obliged to
provide for themselves. He made bows and arrows for them, then
sent them to hunt for the animals which they had turned Loose.
Then the mother told them that as they hail found out her secret
she could do nothing more for them: that she would die. and they
must drag her body around .over the ground; that wherever her body
was dragged corn would come up. Of this they were to make their
bread. She told them that they must always save some for seed and
plant every year.
250 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
4. ORIGIN OF DISEASE AND MEDICINE
In the old days the beasts, birds, fishes, insects, and plants could all
talk, and they and the people lived together in peace and friendship.
But as time went on the people increased so rapidly that their settle-
ments spread over the whole earth, and the poor animals found them-
selves beginning to be cramped for room. This was bad enough, but
to make it worse Man invented hows, knives, blowguns, spears, and
hooks, and began to slaughter the larger animals, birds, and fishes for
their flesh or their skins, while the smaller creatures, such as the
frogs and worms, were crushed and trodden upon without thought, out
of pure carelessness or contempt. So the animals resolved to consult
upon measures for their common safety.
The Bears were the first to meet in council in their townhouse under
Kuwa'hi mountain, the "Mulberry place," and the old White Bear
chief presided. After each in turn had complained of the way in which
Man killed their friends, ate their flesh, and used their skins for his
own purposes, it was decided to begin war at once against him. Some
one asked what weapons Man used to destroy them. " Bows and arrows,
of course,*' cried all the Bears in chorus. "And what are they made
of ] " was the next question. "The bow of wood, and the string of our
entrails." replied one of the Bears. It was then proposed that they
make a bow and some arrows and see if the} T could not use the same
weapons against Man himself. So one Bear got a nice piece of locust
wood and another sacrificed himself for the good of the rest in order
to furnish a piece of his entrails for the string. But when everything
was ready and the first Bear stepped up to make the trial, it was found
that in letting the arrow fly after drawing back the bow, his long claws
caught the string and spoiled the shot. This was annoying, but some
one suggested that they might trim his claws, which was accordingly
done, and on a second trial it was found that the arrow went straight
to the mark. But here the chief, the old White Bear, objected, say-
ing it was necessary that they should have long claws in order to be
able to climb trees. " One of us has already died to furnish the bow-
string, and if we now cut off our claws we must all starve together.
It is better to trust to the teeth and claws that nature gave us, for it is
plain that man's weapons were not intended for us."
No one could think of any better plan, so the old chief dismissed the
council and the Bears dispersed to the woods and thickets without hav-
ing concerted any waj' to prevent the increase of the human race.
Had the result of the council been otherwise, we should now be at war
with the Bears, but as it is. the hunter does not even ask the Bear's par-
don when he kills one.
The Deer next held a council under their chief, the Little Deer, and
after some talk decided to send rheumatism to every hunter who should
booneyJ ORIGIN OF DI8EA8E 251
kill one of them unless he took care to ask their pardon for the offense.
They sent notice of their decision to the nearest settlement of Indians
and told them at the same time what to do when necessity forced them
to kill one of the Deer tribe. Now, whenever the hunter shoots a Deer,
the Little Deer, who is Swift as the wind and can not lie wounded, runs
quickly up to the -pot and. bending over the Mood -stains, asks the spirit
of the Deer if it has heard the prayer of the hunter for pardon. If the
reply be " Yes," all is well, and the Little Deer goes on his way; hut if
the reply lie " No." he follows on the trail of the hunter, guided by the
drops of blood on the ground, until he arrives at his cabin in the set-
tlement, when the Little Deer enters invisibly and strikes the hunter
with rheumatism, so that he becomes at once a helpless cripple. No
hunter who has regard for his health ever fails to ask pardon of the
Deer for killing it, although some hunters who have not learned the
prayer may try to turn aside the Little Deer from 'his pursuit by
building a fire behind them in the trail.
Next came the Fishes ami Reptiles, who had their own complaints
against Man. They held their council toe-ether and determined to
make their victims dream of snakes twining about them in slimy folds
and blowing foul breath in their faces, or to make them dream of
eating raw or decaying tish.so that they would lose appetite, sicken,
and die. This is why people dream about snakes and fish.
Finally the Birds, Insects, and smaller animals came together for
the same purpose, and the Grubworm was chief of the council. It
was decided that each in turn should give an opinion, and then they
would vote on the question as to whether or not Man was guilty.
Seven votes should he enough to condemn him. One after another
denounced Man's cruelty and injustice toward the other animals and
voted in favor of his death. The Frog spoke first, saying: " We
must d<> something to check the increase of the race, or people will
become so numerous that we shall he crowded from off the earth.
See how they have kicked me about because I'm ugly, as they say.
until my back is covered with sores;" and here he showed the spots on
his skin. Next came the Bird — no one remembers now which one it
was — who condemned Man "because he burns my feet off," meaning
the way in which the hunter barbecues birds by impaling them on a
stick set over the fire, so that their feathers and tender feet are singed
off. Others followed in the same strain. The Ground-squirrel alone
ventured to say a good word for Man. who seldom hurt him because
he was so small, but this made the others so angry that they fell upon
the Ground-squirrel and tore him with their claws, and the stripes are
on his back to this day.
They began then to devise and name so many new diseases, one after
another, that had not their invention at last failed them, no one of the
human race would have been aide to survive. The Grubworm grew
252 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
constantly more pleased as the name of each disease was called off, until
at last they reached the end of the list, when some one proposed to
make menstruation sometimes fatal to women. On this he rose up in
his place and cried: " Waddn' ! [Thanks!] I'm glad some more of them
will die. for they are getting so thick that they tread on me." The
thought fairly made him shake with joy, so that he fell over backward
and could not get on his feet again, but had to wriggle off on his back.
as the Grubworm has done ever since.
When the Plants, who were friendly to Man, heard what had been
done by the animals, they determined to defeat the latters' evil designs.
Each Tree, Shrub, and Herb, down even to the Grasses and Mosses,
agreed to furnish a cure for some one of the diseases named, and each
said: "I shall appear to help Man when he calls upon me in his need."
Thus came medicine; and the plants, every one of which has its use if
we only knew it. furnish the remedy to counteract the evil wrought
by the revengeful animals. Even weeds were made for some good
purpose, which we must find out for ourselves. When the doctor
does not know what medicine to use for a sick man the spirit of the
plant tells him.
5. THE DAUGHTER OF THE SUN
The Sun lived on the other side of the sky r vault, but her daughter
lived in the middle of the sky, directly above the earth, and every day
as the Sun was climbing along the sky arch to the west she used to
stop at her daughter's house for dinner.
Now, the Sun hated the people on the earth, because they could
never look straight at her without screwing up their faces. She said
to her brother, the Moon, "My grandchildren are ugly; they grin all
over their faces when they look at me." But the Moon said, "I like
my younger brothers; I think they are very handsome" — because
they always smiled pleasantly when they saw him in the sky at night,
for his rays were milder.
The Sun was jealous and planned to kill all the people, so every day
when she got near her daughter's house she sent down such sultry
rays that there was a great fever and the people died by hundreds,
until everyone had lost some friend and there was fear that no one
would lie left. They went for help to the Little Men, who said the
only way to save themselves was to kill the Sun.
The Little Men made medicine and changed two men to snakes, the
Spreading-adder and the Copperhead, and sent them to watch near the
(l(Kir of the daughter of the Sun to bite the old Sun when she came
next day. They went together and hid near the house until the Sun
came, but when the Spreading-adder was about to spring, the bright
light blinded him and he could only spit out yellow slime, as he does
to this day when he tries to bite. She called him a nasty thing and
hooney] THK DAUGHTER OF THE si N 253
went by into the bouse, and tin' Copperhead crawled off without trying
to do anything.
So the people still died from the heat, and they went to the Little
Men a second time for help. The Little Men made medicine again and
Changed one man into the great I'ktena and another into the Rattle-
snake and sent them to watch near the house and kill the old Sun when
she came Eor dinner. They made the I'ktena very large, with borns
on his head, and everyone thought he would lie sure to do the work.
hut the Rattlesnake was so quick and eager that he got ahead and coiled
up just outside tin' house, and when the Sun's daughter opened the
door to look out for her mother, he sprang up and hit her and she fell
dead in the doorway. He forgot to wait for the old Sun. hut went
hack to the people, and the I'ktena was so very angry that he went
hack. too. Since then we pray to the rattlesnake and do not kill him,
because he is kind and never tries to bite if we do not disturb him.
The Lktena grew angrier all the time and very dangerous, so that if
he even looked at a man. that man's family would die. After a long-
time the people held a council and decided that he was too dangerous
to he with them, so they sent him up to Galun'lati, and he is there
now. The Spreading-adder, the Copperhead, the Rattlesnake, and the
Lktena were all men.
When the Sun found her daughter dead, she went into the house
and grieved, and the people did not die any more, but now the world
was dark all the time, because the Sun would not come out. They
went again to the Little Men. and these told them that if they wanted
the Sun to come out again they must bring back her daughter from
Tsusgina'i, the Ghost country, in Usunhi'vi, the Darkening land in
the west. They chose seven men to go, and gave each a sourw I rod
a hand-breadth long. The Little Men told them they must take a box
with them, and when they got to Tsusgina'i they would find all the
ghosts at a dance. They must stand outside the circle, and when the
young woman passed in the dance they must strike her with the rods
and she would fall to the ground. Then they must put her into the
box and bring her back to her mother, but the} 7 must be very sure not
to open the box. even a little way, until they were home again.
They took the rods and a box and traveled seven days to the west
until they came to the Darkening land. There were a great many
people there, and they were having a dance just as if they were at
home in the settlements. The young woman was in the. outside circle,
and as she swung around to where the seven men were standing, one
struck her with his rod and she turned her head and saw him. As she
came around the second time another touched her with his rod. and
then another and another, until at the seventh round she fell out of
the ring, and they put her into the l>ox and closed the lid fast. The
other ghosts seemed never to notice what had happe 1.
254 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
They took up the box and .started home toward the east. In a little
while the girl came to life again and begged to be let out of the box,
but the}' made no answer and went on. Soon she called again and said
she was hungry, but still they made no answer and went on. After
another while she spoke again and called for a drink and pleaded so
that it was very hard to listen to her, but the men who carried the box
said nothing and still went on. When at last they were very near
home, she called again and begged them to raise the lid just a little,
because she was smothering. They were afraid she was really dying
now, so they lifted the lid a little to give her air, but as they did so
there was a fluttering sound inside and something flew past them into
the thicket and they heard a redbird cry, " Jewish/ Jewish! hwish!" in
the bushes. They shut clown the lid and went on again to the settle-
ments, but when they got there and opened the box it was empty.
So we know the Redbird is the daughter of the Sun, and if the men
had kept the box closed, as the Little Men told them to do, they would
have brought her home safely, and Ave could bring back our other
friends also from the Ghost country, but now when they die we can
never bring them back.
The Sun had been glad when they started to the Ghost country, but
when they came back without her daughter she grieved and cried,
"My daughter, my daughter," and wept until her tears made a flood
upon the earth, and the people were afraid the world would be
drowned. They held another council, and sent their handsomest young
men and women to amuse her so that she would stop crying. They
danced before the Sun and sang their best songs, but for a long time
she kept her face covered and paid no attention, until at last the
drummer suddenly changed the song, when she lifted up her face, and
was so pleased at the sight that she forgot her grief and smiled.
6. HOW THEY BROUGHT BACK THE TOBACCO
In the beginning of the world, when people and animals were all the
same, there was only one tobacco plant, to which they all came for
their tobacco until the DaguTku geese stole it and carried it far away
to the south. The people were suffering without it, and there was one
old woman who grew so thin and weak that everybody said she would
soon die unless she could get tobacco to keep her alive.
Different animals offered to go for it, one after another, the larger
ones first and then the smaller ones, but the Dagul kfi saw and killed
every one before he could get to the plant. After the others the little
Mole tried to reach it by going under the ground, but the DaguTku
saw his track and killed him as he came out.
At last the Hummingbird offered, but the others said he was entirely
too small and might as well stay at home. He begged them to let him
try, so they showed him a plant in a field and told him to let them see
kookbt] iinw THEV BROUGHT BACK THE TOBACCO 255
how he would go aboul it. The next moment lie was gone and they
saw liim sitting <m the plant, and then in a moment he was back again,
l>ut do one had seen him going or coming, because he was so swift.
"This is the way I'll do," said the Hummingbird, so they let him try.
Ilr flew off to the east, am! when he came in sight of the tobacco
the Dagul ku were watching all about it, but they could not see him
because he was so small and tlew so swiftly. Ilr darted down on the
plant tea! and snatched off the top with the leaves and seeds, and
was off again before the Dagul ku knew what had happened. Before
he got home with the tobacco the old woman had fainted and they
thought she was dead, but he blew the smoke into her nostrils, and
with a cry of " Tm'lu! [Tobacco!]" she opened her eyes and was alive
again.
-I I OND VEBSION
The people had tobacco in the beginning, but they had used it all,
and there was great suffering for want of it. There was one old
man so old that he had to be kept alive by smoking, and as his son
did not want to see him die he decided to go himself to try and get
some more. The tobacco country was far in the south, with high
mountains all around it, and the passes were guarded, so that it was
very bard to get into it. but the young man was a conjurer and was not
afraid. He traveled southward until he came to the mountains on the
border of the tobacco country. Then he opened his medicine bag and
took out a hummingbird skin and put it over himself like a dress.
Now he was a hummingbird and flew over the mountains to the tobacco
field and pulled some of the leaves and seed and put them into his
medicine bag. He was so small and swift that the guards, whoever
they were, did not see him, and when he had taken as much as he could
carry he tlew back over the mountains in the same way. Then he took
off the hummingbird skin and put it into his medicine bag. and was a
man again. He started home, and on his way came to a tree that had
a hole in the trunk, like a door, near the first branches, and a very
pretty woman was looking out from it. Hestoppedand tried toclimb
the tree, but although he was a good climber he found that he always
slipped back. He put on a pair of medicine moccasins from his pouch,
and then he could climb the tree, but when he reached the first branches
he looked up and the hole was still as far away as before. He climbed
higher and higher, but every time he looked up the hole seemed to be
farther than before, until at last he was tired and came down again.
When he reached home he found his father very weak, but still alive,
and one draw at the pipe made him strong again. The people planted
the seed and have had tobacco ever since.
7. THE JOURNEY TO THE SUNRISE
A long time ago several young men made up their minds to find the
place where the Sun lives and see what the Sun is like. They got
256 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ahn.19
ready their bows and arrows, their parched corn and extra moccasins,
and started out toward the east. At first they met tribes they knew,
then they came to tribes they had only heard about, and at last to
others of which they had never heard.
There was a tribe of root eaters and another of acorn eaters, with
great piles of acorn shells near their houses. In one tribe they found
a sick man dying, and were told it was the custom there when a man
died to bury his wife in the same grave with him. They waited until
he was dead, when thev saw his friends lower the body into a great
pit, so deep and dark that from the top they could not see the bottom.
Then a rope was tied around the woman's body, together with a bun-
dle of pine knots, a lighted pine knot was put into her hand, and she
was lowered into the pit to die there in the darkness after the last pine
knot was burned.
The young men traveled on until they came at last to the sunrise
place where the sky reaches down to the ground. They found that the
sky was an arch or vault of solid rock hung above the earth and was
always swinging up and down, so that when it went up there was an
open place like a door between the sky and ground, and when it swung
back the door was shut. The Sun came out of this door from the east
and climbed along on the inside of the arch. It had a human figure, but
was too bright for them to see clearly and too hot to come very near.
They waited until the Sun had come out and then tried to get through
while the door was still open, but just as the first one was in the door-
way the rock came down and crushed him. The other six were afraid
to try it, and as they were now at the end of the world they turned
around and started back again, but they had traveled so far that they
were old men when they reached home.
8. THE MOON AND THE THUNDERS.
The Sun was a young woman and lived in the East, while her brother,
the Moon, lived in the West. The girl had a lover who used to come
every month in the dark of the moon to court her. He would come
at night, and leave before daylight, and although she talked with him
she could not see his face in the dark, and he would not tell her his
name, until she was wondering all the time who it could be. At last
she hit upon a plan to find out. so the next time he came, as they were
sitting together in the dark of the asi, she slyly dipped her hand into
the cinders and ashes of the fireplace and rubbed it over his face, say-
ing. "Your face is cold; you must have suffered from the wind,''
and pretending to be very sorry for him, but he did not know that
she had ashes on her hand. After a while he left her and went away
again.
The next night when the Moon came up in the sky his face was cov-
ered with spots, and then his sister knew he was the one who had been
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGV
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. X.ll
TAGWADlHi'
mooney] THE MOOM AND THE THUNDERS 257
coming to see her. He was so much ashamed to have her know it
thai li«' kept us far away as he could at the other end of the skj all the
night. Ever since he tries to keep a long way behind the Sun. and
when he doc- sometimes have to conic near her in the west he makes
himself as thin as a ribbon so thai he can hardly be seen.
Some old people saj that the moon is a hall which was thrown up
against the sky in a game a lone- time ago. They say that two towns
were playing against each other, hut one of them had tin' best runners
and had almost won the came, when the leader of tl ther side picked
up the hall with his hand- a thine- that is not allowed in the game
and tried to throw it to the goal, hut it struck against the solid sky
vault and was fastened there, to remind players never to cheat. When
the moon look- -mall and pale it is because somi has handled the
hall unfairly, and for this reason they formerly played only at the
time of a full moon.
When the sun or moon i- eclipsed it is because a great frog up in
the sky is trying to swallow it. Everybody knows this, even the
Creek- and the other tribes, and in the olden times, eighty or a hun-
dred year- ago, before the great medicine men were all dead, when
ever they -aw the sun grow dark the people would come together and
tire guns and heat the drum, ami in a little while tin- would frighten
off the greal frog ami the sun would he all right again.
The common people call both Sun and Moon Nundd, one being
"Nunda that dwell- in the day" ami the other "Nunda that dwell- in
the night," hut the priests call the Sun Su'tdlidiki', ••Six-killer." and
the Moon Gi ' yagu'ga, though nobody knows now what this wurd means.
or why they use these name-. Sometime- people ask the Moon not to
let it rain or -now .
The great Thunder ami hi- sons, the two Thunder boys, live far in
the west above the sky vault. The lightning and the rainbow are
their beautiful dress. The priests pray to the Thunder and call him
the Red Man. because that is the brightest color of his dress. There
arc other Thunder- that live lower down, in the cliffs and mountains,
and under waterfalls, and travel on invisible bridges from one high
peak to another where they have their town house-. The great Thun-
ders above the sky are kind and helpful when we pray to them, hut
these other- are always plotting mischief. One must not point at the
rainbow, or one'- finger will swell at the lower joint.
9. WHAT THE STARS ARE LIKE
There are different opinion- about the -tars. Some say they are
balls of light, othei- gaj they are human, but most people say they
are living creature- covered with luminous fur or feathers.
One night a hunting party camping in the mountain- noticed two
lights like large star- moving alone- the top of a distant ridge. They
19 eth— i'H 17
258 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
wondered and watched until the light disappeared on the other side.
The next night, and the next, they saw the lights again moving along
the ridge, and after talking over the matter decided to go on the mor-
row and try to learn the cause. In the morning they started out and
went until they came to the ridge, where, after searching some time.
they found two strange creatures about so large (making a circle with
outstretched arms), with round bodies covered with tine fur or downy
feathers, from which small heads stuck out like the heads of terrapins.
As tlic breeze played upon these feathers showers of sparks flew out.
The hunters carried the strange creatures back to the camp, intend-
ing to take them home to the settlements on their return. They kept
them several days and noticed that every night they would grow
bright and shine like great stars, although by day they were (inly balls
of gray fur. except when the wind stirred and made the sparks fly out.
They kept very quiet, and no one thought of their trying to escape,
when, on the seventh night, they suddenly rose from the ground like
balls of fire and were soon above the tops of the trees. Higher and
higher they went, while the wondering hunters watched, until at last
they were only two bright points of light in the dark sky, and then
the hunters knew that they were stars. •
10. ORIGIN OF THE PLEIADES AND THE PINE
Long ago, when the world was new, there were seven boys who
used to spend all their time down by the townhouse playing the
gatayu'sti game, rolling a .stone wheel along the ground and sliding a
curved stick after it to strike it. Their mothers scolded, but it did no
good, so one day they collected some gatayu'sti stones and boiled
them in the pot with the corn for dinner. When the boys came home
hungry their mothers dipped out the stones and said. ■•Since you like
the gatayu'sti better than the cornfield, take the stones now for your
dinner."
The boys were very angry, and went down to the townhouse, say-
ing. "As our mothers treat us this way, let us go where we shall
never trouble them any more." They began a dance — some say it
was the Feather dance — and went round and round the townhouse,
praying to the .spirits to help them. At last their mothers were
afraid something was wrong and went out to look for them. They
saw the boys still dancing around the townhouse. and as they watched
they noticed that their feet were off the earth, and that with every
round they rose higher and higher in the air. They ran to get their
children, but it was too late, for they were already above the roof of
the townhouse — all but one, whose mother managed to pull him down
with the gatayu'sti pole, but he struck the ground with such force
that he sank into it and the earth closed over him.
The other six circled higher and higher until they went up to the
ORIGIN OF STRAWBEEE] ES 2 >9
sky, where we see them now as the Pleiades, which the Cherokee
stiil call A.ni'tsutsa (The Boys). The people grieved long after them,
but the mother whose boy had gone into the ground came every
morning and every evening to cry over the spot until the earth was
damp with her tears. At hist a little green shoot sprouted up and
gre^ day by day until it became the tall tree that we call now the
pine, and the pine is of the same nature as the stars and holds in
itself the same bright light.
n. THE MILKY WAY
Some people in the south hail a corn mill, in which they pounded
thi' corn into meal, and several mornings when they came to till it they
noticed that some of the meal had been stolen d urine- the night. They
examined the ground anil found the tracks of a doe'. s ( > the next night
the\ watched, and when the doe- came from the north and began to eat
the meal out of the howl they sprang out and whipped him. lie ran
off howling to his home in the north, with the meal dropping from his
mouth as lie ran, and leaving behind a white trail where now weseethe
Milky Way. which the Cherokee call to this day (ii li'-utsun'stanufi'j i.
■• Where the doe- ran."
12. ORIGIN OF STRAWBERRIES
When the first man was created and a mate was given to him. they
lived together very happily for a time, hut then began to quarrel, until
at last the woman left her husband and started oh" toward Nund&gun'ja,
the Sun land, in the east. The man followed alone and grieving, but
the woman kept on steadily ahead and never looked behind, until
I'ne' lanun'hi, the great Apportioner (the Sun), took pity on him and
asked him if he was still angry with his wife. lb' said he was not. and
I'ne' lanun'hi then asked him if he would like to have her hack again,
to which lie eagerly answered yes.
So I'ne' lanun'hi caused a patch of the finest ripe huckleberries to
spring up alone- the path in front of the woman, but she passed by
without paying any attention to them. Farther on he put a clump of
blackberries, but these also she refused to notice. Other fruits, one,
two, and three, and then some trees covered with beautiful red service
berries, were placed beside the path to tempt her. hut she still went on
until suddenly she saw in front a patch of large ripe strawberries, the
first ever known. She stooped to gather a few to eat. and as she picked
them -he chanced to turn her face to the west, and at once the memory
of her husband came hack to her and she found herself unable to go
on. She sat down, hut the longer she waited the stronger became her
desire for her husband, and at last she gathered a hunch of the finest
berries and started back alone- the path to give them to him. He met
her kindly and they went home together.
260 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
13. THE GREAT YELLOW-JACKET: ORIGIN OF FISH AND FROGS
A long time ago the people of the old town of Kanu'ga la'yi (" Brier
place," or Briertown), on Nantahala river, in the present Macon
county. North Carolina, were much annoyed by a great insect called
U'la'gu.', as large as a house, which used to come from some secret
hiding place, and darting swiftly through the air, would snap up chil-
dren from their play and carry them away. It was unlike any other
insect ever known, and the people tried many times to track it to its
home, but it was too swift to be followed.
They killed a squirrel and tied a white string to it, so that its course
could be followed with the eye. as bee hunters follow the flight of a
lice to its tree. The U'la'gu' came and carried off the squirrel with
the string hanging to it, but darted away so swiftly through the air
that it was out of sight in a moment. They killed a turkey and put a
longer white string to it, and the U'la'gvi' came and took the turkey,
but was gone again before they could see in what direction it flew.
They took a deer ham and tied a white string to it. and again the
U'la'gu' swooped down and bore it off so swiftly that it could not be
followed. At last they killed a yearling deer and tied a very long
white string to it. The U'la'gu' came again and seized the deer, but
this time the load was so heavy that it had to fly slowly and so low
down that the string could be plainly seen.
The hunters got together for the pursuit. They followed it along
a ridge to the east until they came near where Franklin now is, when,
on looking across the valley to the other side, they saw the nest of
the U'la'gu' in a large cave in the rocks. On this they raised a great
shout and made their way rapidly down the mountain and across to the
cave. The nest had the entrance below with tiers of cells built up one
above another to the roof of the cave. The great U'la'gu' was there,
with thousands of smaller ones, that we now call yellow-jackets. The
hunters built tires around the hole, so that the smoke filled the cave
and smothered the great insect and multitudes of the smaller ones,
but others which were outside the cave were not killed, and these
escaped and increased until now the yellow- jackets, which before
were unknown, are all over the world. The people called the cave
Tsgagun'yi. " Where the yellow-jacket was." and the place from which
they first saw the nest they called Atahi'ta. " Where they shouted," and
these are their names today.
They say also that all the fish and frogs came from a great monster
fish and frog which did much damage until at last they were killed
by the people, who cut them up into little pieces which were thrown
into the water and afterward took shape as the smaller fishes and
frous.
THE F01 RFOOTED TRIBES 26 1
14. THE DELUGE
A longtime ago a man bad a dog, which began to go down to the
river cxn\ . l:i \ and look at the water and howl. At last the man
was angry and scolded the dog, which then spoke to bira and said:
"Very soon there is going to be a great freshet and the water will
come so high that everybody will lie drowned; hut if you will make a
raft to gel upon when the rain comes you can lie saved, but you must
first throw me into the water." The man did not believe it. and the
dog said, "If you want a sign that I speak the truth, look at the hack
of my neck." lie looked and saw that the dog's neck had the skin
worn oil' so that the hones stuck out.
Then lie believed the dog, and began to build a raft. Soon the rain
came and he took his family, with plenty of provisions, and they all
got upon it. It rained for a long time, and the water rose until the
mountains were covered and all the people in the world were drow ned.
Then the rain stopped and the waters went down again, until at last
it was safe to come oil the raft. Now there was no one alive hut the
man ami his family, but one day they heard a sound of dancing and
shouting on the other side of the ridge. The man climbed to the top
and looked over; everything was still, hut all along the valley he saw
great piles of hones of the people who had been drowned, and then
he knew that the ghosts had been dancing.
Quadruped Myths
15. the fourfooted tribes
In Cherokee mythology, as in that of Indian tribes generally, there
is no essential difference between men and animals. In the primal
genesis period they seem to he completely undifferentiated, and we
find all creatures alike living and working together in harmony and
mutual helpfulness until man. by his aggressiveness and disregard for
the rights of the others, provokes their hostility, when insects, birds,
fishes, reptiles, and fourfooted beasts join forces against him (see
story. ••( )rigin of Disease and Medicine""). Henceforth their lives are
apart, but the difference is always one of decree only. The animals,
like the people, are organized into tribes and have like them their
chief- and townhouses, their councils and ballplays, and the same
hereafter in the Darkening land of Qsunhi'yi. Man is still the para-
mount power, and hunts and slaughters the others as his own necessi
tie- compel, hut is obliged to satisfy the animal tribes in every
instance, very much as a murder is compounded for, according to the
Indian system, by "covering the hones of the dead" with presents for
the bereaved relatives.
This pardon to the hunter is made the easier through a peculiar
262 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
doctrine of reincarnation, according to which, as explained by the
shamans, there is assigned to every animal a definite life term which
can not be curtailed by violent means. If it is killed before the expi-
ration of the allotted time the death is only temporary and the body
is immediately resurrected in its proper shape from the blood (Imps,
and the animal continues its existence until the end of the predestined
period, when the body is finally dissolved and the liberated spirit goes
to join its kindred shades in tin 1 Darkening land. This idea appears
in the story of the bear man and in the belief concerning the Little
Deer. Death is thus but a temporary accident and the killing a mere
minor crime. By some priests it is held that there are seven succes-
sive reanimations before the final end.
Certain supernatural personages, Kana'ti and Tsul'kalii' (see the
myths), have dominion over the animals, and are therefore regarded
as the distinctive gods of the hunter. Kana'ti at one time kept the
game animals, as well as the pestiferous insects, shut up in a cave
under ground, from which they were released by his undutiful sons.
The primeval animals — the actors in the animal myths and the pred-
ecessors of the existing species — are believed to have been much
larger, stronger, and cleverer than their successors of the present
day. In these myths we find the Indian explanation of certain pecu-
liarities of form, color, or habit, and the various animals are always
consistently represented as acting in accordance with their well-known
characteristics.
First and most prominent in the animal myths is the Rabbit ( Tsisfat),
who figures always as a trickster and deceiver, generally malicious,
but often beaten at his own game by those whom he had intended to
victimize. The connection of the rabbit with the dawn god and the
relation of the Indian myths to the stories current among the southern
negroes are discussed in another place. Ball players while in train-
ing are forbidden to eat the flesh of the rabbit, because this animal so
easily becomes confused in running. On the other hand, their spies
seek opportunity to strew along the path which must be taken by
their rivals a soup made of rabbit hamstrings, with the purpose of
rendering them timorous in action.
In a ball game between the birds and the fourfooted animals (see
story) the Bat, which took sides with the birds, is said to have won the
victory for his party by his superior dodging abilities. For this rea-
son the wings or sometimes the stuffed skin of the bat are tied to the
implements used in the game to insure success for the players. Accord-
ing to the same myth the Flying Squirrel ( Tewa) also aided in securing
the victory, and hence both these animals are still invoked by the ball
player. The meat of the common gray squirrel (stil&'U) is forbidden
to rheumatic patients, on account of the squirrel's habit of assuming
a cramped position when eating. The stripes upon the back of the
THE FOURFOOTED TRIBES 263
ground squirrel (kiyu' ga) are the mark of scratches made by the angry
animals at a memorable council in which be took ii upon himself to
say a good word for the archenemy, Man (see " ( )rigin of 1 disease and
Medicine"). The peculiarities of the mink (sufigi) ai - e accounted for by
another storj .
The buffalo, the largest game animal of America, was hunted in the
southern Alleghenj region until almost the close of the last century,
the particular species being probably that known in th<' West as the
wood or mountain buffalo. The name in use among the principal gulf
tribes was practically tin- same, and can not be analyzed, viz, Cherokee,
//I'ntst'i'; Hichitee, ya'nasi; Creek, ySna'sa; Choctaw, yaiiask. Although
the flesh <>t' the buffalo was eaten, its skin dressed for blankets and bed
coverings, its lone- hair woven into belts, and its horns carved into
spoons, it is yet strangely absent from Cherokee folklore. So far as
is known it is mentioned in hut a single one of the sacred formula-, in
which a person under treatment for rheumatism is forbidden to eat
the meat, touch the >kin. or use a spoon made from the horn of the
buffalo, upon the ground of an occult connection between the habitual
cramped attitude of a rheumatic and the natural "hump" of that
animal.
The elk is known, probably by report, under the name of a <<■<'
,'ijir,i. "great deer", but there is no myth or folklore in connection
with it.
The deer. awl', which is still common in the mountains, was the
principal dependence of the Cherokee hunter, and is consequently
prominent in myth, folklore, and ceremonial. One of the seven
gentes of the tribe i- named from it (Ani'-Kawf, "Deer People'*).
According to a myth given elsewhere, the deer won hi- horn- in a suc-
cessful race with the rabbit. Rheumatism is usually ascribed to the
work of revengeful deer ghosts, which the hunter has neglected to
placate, while on the other hand the aid of the deer is invoked against
frostbite, as its feet are believed to be immune from injuiw by frost.
'I'iie wolf, the fox. and the opossum are also invoked for this purpose,
and for the same reason. When the redrool {Ceanothus americanus)
put- forth it- leaves the people say the young fawn- are then in the
mountains. On killing a deer the hunter always .ait- out the ham-
string from the hind quarter and throws' it away, for fear that if
he ate it he would thereafter tire easilj in traveling.
The powerful chief of the deer tribe i- the A wi' Usdi', or ••Little
Deer," who is invisible to all except the greatest masters of the
hunting secrets, and can be wounded only by the hunter who ha- sup-
plemented years of occult study with frequent fasts and lonely vigils.
The Little Deer keeps constant protecting watch over hi- subjects, and
sees well to it that not one is ever killed in wantonness. When a deer
i- -hot l>v tin' hunter the Little Deer know- it at once and i- instantly
264 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.akk.19
at the spot. Bending low his head he asks of the blood stains upon
the ground if they have heard -i. e., if the hunter has asked pardon
for the life that he has taken. If the formulistic prayer has been made,
all i> well, because the necessary sacrifice has been atoned for; but if
otherwise, the Little Deer tracks the hunter to his house by the blood
drops along the trail, and. unseen and unsuspected, puts into his body
the spirit of rheumatism that shall rack him with aches and pains from
that time henceforth. As seen at rare intervals —perhaps once in a
lonu' lifetime — the Little Deer is pure white and about the size of a
.small doy, has branching antlers, and is always in company with a large
herd of deer. Even though shot by the master hunter, he comes to life
again, being immortal, but the fortunate huntsman who can thus
make prize of his antlers has in them an unfailing talisman that brings
him success in the chase forever after. The smallest portion of one
of those horns of the Little Deer, when properly consecrated, attracts
the deer to the hunter, and when exposed from the wrapping dazes
them so that they forget to run and thus become an easy prey.
Like the Ulunsu'tl stone (see number 50), it is a dangerous prize when
not treated with proper respect, and is — or was — kept always in a secret
place away from the house to guard against sacrilegious handling.
Somewhat similar talismanic power attached to the down from the
young antler of the deer when properly consecrated. So firm was
the belief that it had influence over •"anything about a deer" that
eighty and a hundred years ago even white traders used to bargain
with the Indians for such charms in order to increase their store of
deerskins by drawing the trade to themselves. The faith in the exist-
ence of the miraculous Little Deer is almost as strong and universal
to-day among the older Cherokee as is the belief in a future life.
The bears (i/i'iiii'i) are transformed Cherokee of the old clan of the
Ani'-Tsa'guhi (see story. "Origin of the Bear"). Their chief is the
White Bear, who lives at Kuwa'hi, •"Mulberry place." one of the high
peaks of the Great Smoky mountains, near to the enchanted lake of
Atag&'hl (see number ti!>). to which the wounded bears go to lie cured of
their hurts. Under Kuwa'hi and each of three other peaks in the same
mountain region the bears have townhouses, where they congregate
and hold dances every fall before retiring to their dens for the winter.
Being really human, they can talk if they only would, and once a
mother bear was heard singing to her cub in words which the hunter
understood. There is one variety known as JcaM^-gikwLhi'ta, "long
hams." described as a large black bear with long legs and small feet,
which is always lean, and which the hunter does not care to shoot, pos-
sibly on account of its leanness. It is believed that new-born cubs are
hairless, like mice.
The wolf ()/',/' ya) is revered as the hunter and watchdog of Kana'ti.
and the largest yens in the tribe bears the name of Ani'-wa' ya, "Wolf
THE FOURFOOTED TRIBES 265
people." The ordinary ( Iherokee w ill never kill one if he can possibly
avoid it, but will let the animal go by unharmed, believing that the
kindred of a slain wolf will surely revenge his death, and that the
weapon with which the deed is done will be rendered worthless for
further shooting until cleaned and exorcised by a medicine man. ( ler
tain persons, however, having knowledge of the proper atonement
rites, may kill wolves with impunity, and are hired for this purpose
t>\ others who have suffered from raids upon their fish traps or their
stock. Like the eagle killer (see "'The BirdTi'ibes"), the professional
wolf killer, after killing one of these animals, addresses to it a prayer
in which he seeks to turn aside the vengeance of the tribe by laying
the burden of blame upon the people of some other settlement. lie
then unscrews the barrel of his gun and inserts into it seven small sour-
wood rods heated over the fire, and allows it to remain thus overnight
in the running stream; in the morning the rods are taken out and the
barrel is thoroughly dried and cleaned.
The dog (gili'), although as much a part of Indian life among the
Cherokee as in other tribes, hardly appears in folklore. One myth
makes him responsible for the milky way: another represents him as
driving the wolf from the comfortable house lire and taking the place
for himself. He figures also in connection with the deluge. There is
no tradition of the introduction of the horse (sd'gwdli, iromasd 1 'gwdlihu' ',
"a pack or burden") or of the cow (wa''ka, from the Spanish, vaca).
The hog is called sikiod, this being originally the name of the opossum,
which somewhat resembles it in expression, and which is now distin
guished as sikwd utse'tsti, "grinning sikwa." In the same wa\ the
-hce p. another introduced animal, is called a "•/' unddt 'net," woolly deer";
the goat, dwi' alianu'l&M, "bearded deer," and the mule, " sd'gwd'li
digu'landhi'ta, "long-eared horse." The cat, also obtained from the
whites, is called wesd, an attempt at the English "pussy." When it
purrs by the fireside, the children say it is counting in Cherokee,
" ta'ladvl ', in'iu'iji. ta'ladu', nurHgt" "sixteen, four, sixteen, four." The
elephant, which a few of the Cherokee have seen in show-, is called
by them Je&ma'md u'tdnu, "great butterfly," from the supposed resem-
blance of its long trunk and flapping ears to the proboscis and wines
<>1 that insect. The anatomical peculiarities of the opossum, of both
sexes, are the subject of much curious speculation among the Indians,
many of whom believe that its young are produced without an) help
from the male. It occurs in one or two of the minor myths.
The fox (tsu''ld) is mentioned in one of the formulas, but doc- no
appear in the tribal folklore. The black fox is known by a differenf
name {in&'U). The odor of the skunk (dUd') is believed to keep off
contagious diseases, and the scent bag is therefore taken out and
hung over the doorway, a small hole being pierced in it in order that
the content- may ooze out upon the timbers. At times, as in the
266 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ETH.ANN.19
smallpox epidemic of 1S66, the entire body of the animal was thus
hung up, and in some eases, as :ui additional safeguard, the meat was
rooked and eaten and the oil rubbed over the skin of the person. The
underlying idea is that the fetid smell repels the disease spirit, and
upon the same principle the buzzard, which is so evidently superior to
carrion smells, is held to he powerful against the same diseases.
The beaver (dd'yi), by reason of its well-known gnawing ability,
against which even the hardest wood is not proof, is invoked on behalf
of young children just getting their permanent teeth. According to
the little formula which is familiar to nearly every mother in the tribe,
when the loosened milk tooth is pulled out or drops out of itself, the
child runs with it around the house, repeating four times, " Dd'yi,
sl'nitu' (Beaver, put a new tooth into my jaw)'* after which he throws
the tooth upon the roof of the house.
In a characteristic song formula to prevent frostbite the traveler,
before starting out on a cold winter morning, rubs his feet in the ashes
of the tire and sings a song of four verses, by means of which, accord-
ing to the Indian idea, he acquires in turn the cold-defying powers of
the wolf, fleer, fox, and opossum, four animals whose feet, it is held,
are never frostbitten. After each verse he imitates the cry and the
action of the animal. The words used are archaic in form and may be
rendered "'I become a real wolf," etc. The song runs:
Txini'ir<i''ij(t-tj<i' (repeated four times), wa-\-a! (prolonged howl). (Imitates a
wolf pawing the ground with Ins feet. )
Tsd.fi' -ha/ vA-ye' (repeated four times), sauh! sauh! sauh! smth.' (Imitates call and
jumping of a deer.)
TsiiH / -t.iii / '/ii-)jn' (repeated four times), gaih! gaih! gaih! >j<iih.' (Imitates barking
and scratching of a fox. )
Txi'nl'-xVkiru-iin' (repeated four times), />■?-)-. (Imitates the cry of an opossum
when cornered, and throws his head back as that animal does when feigning death, i
16. THE RABBIT GOES DUCK HUNTING
The Rabbit was so boastful that lie would claim to do whatever he
saw anyone else do. and so tricky that he could usually make the other
animals believe it all. Once he pretended that he could swim in the
water and eat fish just as the Otter did. and when the others told him
to prove it he lixed up a plan so that the Otter himself was deceived.
Soon afterward they met again and the Otter said, "I eat ducks some-
times." Said the Rabbit, "Well, I eat ducks too." The Otter chal-
lenged him to try it; so they went up along the river until they saw
several ducks in the water and managed to get near without being
seen. The Rabbit told the Otter to go first. The Otter never hesi-
tated, but dived from the bank and swam under water until he reached
the ducks, when he pulled one down without being noticed by the
others, and came back in the same way.
While the Otter had been under the water the Rabbit had peeled
THE BABBIT GOES DUCK 111 NTING 267
sonic bark from a sapling and made himself a noose. " Now ." he said,
"Just watch me:"' and he dived in and swam a little way under the
water until he was nearly choking and had to come up to the top to
breathe. He went under again and came up again a little nearer to
the ducks. He look another breath and dived under, and this time he
came up among the ducks and threw the noose over the head of one
and caught it. The duck struggled hard and finally spread its wings
and flew up from the water with the Rabbit hanging on to the noose.
It flew on and on until at last the Rabbil could not hold on any
longer, bul had i>- let go and drop. As it happened, he fell into a tall,
hollow sycamore stump without any hole at the bottom to gel oul
from, and there lie stayed until he was so hungry that lie had to eat
his own fui-. as the rabbil does ever since when he is starving. After
several days, when he was very weak with hunger, he heard children
playing outside around the trees. lie began to sing:
Cm a door and l""k at me;
I'm the prettiest thing you ever did aee.
The children ran home and told their father, who came and began
to cut a hole in the tree. As lie chopped away tin' Rabbit inside kepi
singing, "Cut it larger, so you can see me better; I'm so pretty." They
made the hole larger, and then the Rabbit told them to stand hack so
that they could take a good look as he came out. They stood away
hack, and the Rabbit watched his chance and jumped oul and got away.
17. HOW THE RABBIT STOLE THE OTTER'S COAT
The animals were of different sizes and wore coats of various colors
and patterns. Some wore lone- fur and others wore short. Some had
rings on their tails, and some had no tails at all. Some had coat- of
brown, others of black or yellow. They were always disputing aboul
their good looks, so at last they agreed to hold a council to decide who
had the finest coat.
They had heard a great deal about the Otter, w ho lived SO far up the
creek that he seldom came down to visit the other animals. It was -aid
that he had the finest coat of all. but no one knew just what it was like.
because it was a lone- time since anyone had seen him. They did not
even know exactly where he lived — only the general direction; but
they knew he would come to the council when the word gol out.
Now the Rabbil wanted the verdict for himself, so when it began to
look as if it might go to the Otter he studied up apian to cheat him out
of it. He asked a few sly questions until he learned what trail the
Otterwould take to gel to the council place. Then, without saying any-
thing, he went on ahead and after four days' travel he met the Otter
and knew him at -e by hi- beautiful coal of -oft dark-brown* fur.
The Otter wa- glad to see him and asked him where he was eroingr.
268 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.ij
•■ ( )." said the Rabbit, " the animals sent me to bring you to the council;
because you live so far away they were afraid you mightn't know the
road.'" The Otter thanked him. and they went on together.
They traveled all day toward the council ground, and at night the
Rabbit selected the camping place, because the Otter wasa stranger
in that part of the country, and cut down bushes for beds and fixed
everything in good shape. The next morning they started on again.
In the afternoon the Rabbit began to pick up wood and bark as they
went along and to load it on his hack. When the Otter asked what this
was for the Rabbit said it was that they might be warm and comfort-
able at night. After a while, when it was near sunset, they stopped
and made their camp.
When supper was over the Rabbit gota stick and shaved it down to
a paddle. The Otter wondered and asked again what that was for.
"I have good dreams when I sleep with a paddle under my head,"
said the Rabbit.
When the paddle was finished the Rabbit began to cut awa}' the
bushes so as to make a clean trail down to the river. The Otter won-
dered more and more and wanted to know what this meant.
Said the Rabbit. "This place is called Di'tatlaski'yi [The Place Where
it Rains Fire]. Sometimes it rains tire here, and the sky looks a little
that way to-night. You go to sleep and 1*11 sit up and watch, and if
the tire does come, as soon as you hear me shout, you run and jump
into the river. Better hang your eoat on a limb over there, so it won't
get burnt."
The Otter did as he was told, and they both doubled up to go to sleep,
but the Rabbit kept awake. After a while the tire burned down to red
coals. The Rabbit called, but the Otter was fast asleep and made no
answer. In a little while he called again, but the Otter never stirred.
Then the Rabbit Idled the paddle with hot. coals and threw them up into
the air and shouted, " It's raining tire! It's raining tire!"
The hot coals fell all around the Otter and he jumped up. "To the
water! " cried the Rabbit, and the Otter ran and jumped into the river,
and he has lived in the water ever since.
The Rabbit took the Otter's coat and put it on, leaving his own
instead, and went on to the council. All the animals were there, even-
one looking out for the Otter. At last they saw him in the distance,
and they said one to the other, "The Otter is coming!" and sent one
of the small animals to show him the best seat. They were all glad
to see him and went up in turn to welcome him. but the Otter kept
his head down, with one paw over his face. They wondered that he
was so bashful, until the Rear came up and pulled the paw away, and
there was the Rabbit with his split nose. He sprang up and started to
run, when the Bear struck at him and pulled his tail off, but the Rabbit
was too quick for them and got away.
moonky] HOW THE WILDCAT CAUGHT THE GOBBLES 269
18. WHY THE POSSUM'S TAIL IS BARE
The Possum used to have a long, bushy tail, and was so proud of it
that he combed it oul every morning and sang about it ai the dance.
until tlic Rabbit, who had had no tail since the Bear pulled it out.
became very jealous and made up his mind to play the Possum a i rick.
There was to be a great council and a dance at which all the animals
were to he present. It was the Rabbit's business to send out the news.
so a- he was passing the Possum's place he stopped to ask him if he
intended to lie there. The Possum said he Would come if hi' could
have a special seat, "because I have such a handsome tail that I ought
to sit where everybody can see me." The Rabbit promised to attend
to it and to send some one besides to comb and dress the Possum's tail
for the dance, so the Possum was very much pleased and agreed to
come.
Then the Rabbit went over to the Cricket, who is such an expert haii-
cutter that the Indians call him the barber, and told him to e-,> next
morning and dress the Possum's tail for the dance that night. I le told
the Cricket just what to do and then went on about some other mischief.
In the morning the Cricket went to the Possum's house ami said he
had conic to gei him ready for the dance. So the Possum stretched
himself out and shut his eyes while the Cricket combed out his tail and
wrapped a red string around it to keep it smooth until night. Hut all
this time, as he wound the string around, he was clipping oil' the hair
close to the roots, and the Possum never knew it.
When it was night the Possum went to the townhouse where the
dance was to he and found the best seat ready for him. just as the Rab-
liit had promised. When his turn came in the dance he loosened the
string from his tail and stepped into the middle of the floor. The
drummers began to drum and the Possum began to sine-. "See my
beautiful tail." Everybody shouted and he danced around the circle
and sane- again, •"See what a fine color it has." They shouted again
and he danced around another time, singing, "See how it sweeps the
ground." The animals shouted more loudly than ever, and the Possum
was delighted. He danced around again and sang, "See how tine the
fur is." Then everybody laughed so long that the Possum wondered
what they meant. He looked around the circle of animals and they
were all laughing- at him. Then he looked down at his beautiful tail
and saw that there was not a hair left upon it. hut that it was as bare as
the tail of a lizard. He was so much astonished and ashamed that he
could not say a word, but rolled over helpless on the gi'ound and
grinned, as the Possum does to this day when taken by surprise.
19. HOW THE WILDCAT CAUGHT THE GOBBLER
The Wildcat once caught the Rabbit and was about to kill him. when
the Rabbit begged for his life, saying: " I'm so -mall I would make
270 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.i.i
only a mouthful for you. but it' you Let me .y-o I'll show you where you
can gel a whole drove of Turkeys."' So the Wildcat let him up and
went with him to where the Turkeys were.
When they came near the place the Rabbit said to the Wildcat,
•• Now. you must do just as I say. Lie down as it you were dead and
don't move, even if I kick you. but when I give the word jump up and
catch the largest one there." The Wildcat agreedand stretched out as
if dead, while tlie Rabbit gathered some rotten wood and crumbled it
over his eyes and nose to make them look flyblown, so that the Turkeys
would think lie had been dead some time.
Then the Rabbit went over to the Turkeys and said, in a sociable
way. "Here, I've found our old enemy, the Wildcat, lying dead in the
trail. Let's have a dance over him." The Turkeys were very doubtful,
hut finally went with him to where the Wildcat was lying in the road
as if dead. Now, the Rabbit had a good voice and was a great dance
leader, so he said, "I'll lead the song and you dance around him."
The Turkeys thought that line, so the Rabbit took a stick to beat time
and began to sing: " Gdl&gi'na hem tyak', Gdldgi'na hasuyak! (pick out
the Gobbler, pick out the Gobbler)."
•• Why do you say that?" said the old Turkey. " O, that's all right,"
said the Rabbit, "that's just the way he does, and we sing about it."
He started the song again and the Turkeys began to dance around the
Wildcat. When they had gone around several times the Rabbit said,
" Now go up and hit him, as we do in the war dance." So the Turkeys,
thinking the Wildcat surely dead, crowded in close around him and
the old gobbler kicked him. Then the Rabbit drummed hard and sang
his loudest, "Pick out the Gobbler, pick out the Gobbler," and the
Wildcat jumped up and caught the Gobbler.
20. HOW THE TERRAPIN BEAT THE RABBIT
The Rabbit was a great runner, and everybody knew it. No one
thought the Terrapin anything but a slow traveler, but he was a great
warrior and very boastful, and the two were always disputing about
their speed. At last they agreed to decide the matter by a race.
They fixed the day and the starting place and arranged to run across
four mountain ridges, and the one who came in first at the end was to
be the winner.
The Rabbit felt so sure of it that he said to the Terrapin, "You
know you can't run. You can never win the race, so I'll give you the
first ridge and then you'll have only three to cross while I go over
four."
The Terrapin said that would be all right, but that night wdien he
went home to his family he sent for his Terrapin friends and told
them he wanted their help. He said he knew he could not outrun the
Rabbit, but he wanted to stop the Rabbit's boasting. He explained
his plan to his friends and they agreed to help him.
moonei HOW THE TEBRAPIH BEAT THE BABBIT '-'71
When the day came all the animals were there to see the race. The
K;il>l)it was with them. but the Terrapin was gone ahead toward the first
ridge, as they had arranged, and thej could hardly see him on account
of the lone- grass. The word was given and the Rabbil started nil' with
long jumps up the mountain, expecting I" win t he race before the Ter-
rapin could gel down the other side. But lie fore lie got u|i the moun-
tain he saw the Terrapin go over the ridge ahead of him. He ran on.
and when he reached the top he looked all around. Imt could not see
the Terrapin on account of the lone- o-rass. He kept on down the moun
tain and began to climb the second ridge, hut when he looked up again
there was the Terrapin just going over the top. Now he was surprised
and made his longest jumps to catch up, but when he o-"t to the top
there was the Terrapin away in trout going over the third ridge. The
Rabbil was getting tired now and nearly out of breath, hut he kept on
down the mountain and up the other ridge until he got to the top just
in time to see the Terrapin cross the fourth ridge and thus win the race.
The Rabbit could not make another jump. Imt fell over on the ground,
crying ml, mi. mi, mi. as the Rabbit does ever since when he is too tired
to run any more. The race was given to the Terrapin and all the ani-
mal- wondered how he could win against the Rabbit, hut he kept still
and never told. It was easy enough, however, because all the Terra
pin's friends looked just alike, and he had simply posted one near the
toji of each ridge to wait until the Rabbit came in sight and then climb
over and hide in the long grass. When the Rabbit came on he could
not find the Terrapin and so thought the Terrapin was ahead, and if he
had met one of the other terrapins he would have thought it the same
one because they looked.so much alike. The real Terrapin had posted
himself on the fourth ridge, so as to come in at the end of the race
and be ready to answer questions if the animals suspected anything.
Because the Rabbit had to lie down and lose the race the conjurer
now. when preparing his young men for the hall play, boils a lot of
rabbit hamstrings into a soup, and sends some one at night to pour it
across the path along which the other players are to come in the morn-
ing, so that they may become tired in the same way and lose the game.
It is not always easy to do this, because the other party is expecting
it and has watchers ahead to prevent it.
21. THE RABBIT AND THE TAR WOLF
Once there was such a lone' spell of dry weather that there was no
more water in the creeks and springs, and the animals held a council
to see what to do about it. They decided to die- ; , well, and all agreed
to help except the Rabbit, who was a lazy fellow, and said. " I don't
need to dig for water. The dew on the grass is enough for me." The
others did not like this, hut they went to work together and dug
their well.
272 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
They noticed that the Rabbit kepi sleek and lively, although it was
still dry weather and the water was getting low in the well. They said.
"That tricky Rabbit steals our water at night," so they made a wolf
of pine gum and tar and set it up by the well to scar • the thief. That
night the Rabbit came, as he had been coming every night, to drink
enough to last him all next day. He saw the queer black thing by the
well and said. "Who's there?" but the tar wolf said nothing. He
came nearer, but the wolf never moved, so he grew braver and said,
"Get out of my way or I'll strike you." Still the wolf never moved
and the Rabbit came up and struck it with his paw, but the gum held
his foot and it stuck fast. Now he was angry and said, "Let mo
go or I'll kick you." Still the wolf said nothing. Then the Rabbit
struck again with his hind foot, so hard that it was caught in the gum
and he could not move, and there he stuck until the animals came for
water in the morning. When they found who the thief was they had
great sport over him for a while and then got ready to kill him, but as
soon as he was unfastened from the tar wolf he managed to get
away. — Wafford,
SECOND VEKSION
"Once upon a time there was such a severe drought that all streams
of water and all lakes were dried up. In this emergency the beasts
assembled together to devise means to procure water. It was pro-
posed by one to dig a well. All agreed to do so except the hare. She
refused because it would soil her tiny paws. The rest, however, dug
their well and were fortunate enough to find water. The hare begin-
ning to sutler and thirst, and having no right to the well, was thrown
upon her wits to procure water. She determined, as the easiest way.
to steal from the public well. The rest of the animals, surprised to
find that the hare was so well supplied with water, asked her where
she got it. She replied that she arose betimes in the morning and
gathered the dewdrops. However the wolf and the fox suspected her
of theft and hit on the following plan to detect her:
They made a wolf of tar and placed it near the well. On the fol-
lowing night the hare came as usual after her supply of water. On
seeing the tar wolf she demanded who was there. Receiving no answer
she repeated the demand, threatening to kick the wolf if he did not
reply. She receiving no reply kicked the wolf, and by this means
adhered to the tar and was caught. When the fox and wolf got hold
of her they consulted what it was best to do with her. One proposed
cutting her head off. This the hare protested would be useless, as it
had often been tried without hurting her. Other methods were pro-
posed for dispatching her, all of which she said would be useless. At
last it was proposed to let her loose to perish in a thicket. Upon this
the hare affected great uneasiness and pleaded hard for life. Her
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIV
-.hot £RAF
hooney] THE RABBIT DINKS THE BEAR -J".'?
enemies, however, refused to listen and she was accordingly let loose.
As soon, however, as she was out <>l' reach of her enemies she ga\ e a
whoop, and bounding away she exclaimed: 'This is where I live."'
Cherokee Advocate. December is. L845.
22. THE RABBIT AND THE POSSUM AFTER A WIFE
The Rabbit and the Possum each wanted a wife, but no one would
marry eitherof them. They talked overthe matter and the Rabbit said.
"Wecan't get wives here; let's go to the next settlement. I'm the
messenger for the council, and I'll tell the people that 1 brine- an order
that everybody must take 1 a mate at once, and then we'll be sure to get
our wives."
The Possum thought this a tine plan, so they started oil together to
the next town. As tin 1 Rabbit traveled faster he got there first and
waited outside until the people noticed him and took him into the
townhouse. When the chief came to ask his business the Rabbit said
he brought an important order from the council that everybody must
get married without delay. So the chief called the people together
and told them the message from the council. Every animal took a
mate at once, and the Rabbit got a wife.
The Possum traveled so slowly that he got there after all the animals
had mated, leaving him still without a wife. The Rabbit pretended to
feel sorry for him and said. "Never mind. I'll carry the message to
the people in the next settlement, and you hurry on as fast as you can,
and this time you will get your wife."
So he went on to the next town, and the Possum followed close after
him. But when the Rabbit got to the townhouse he sent out the word
that, as there had been peace so long that everybody was getting lazy
the council had ordered that there must be war at once and they must
begin right in the townhouse. So they all began fighting, but the
Rabbit made four great leaps and got away just as the Possum came
in. Everybody jumped on the Possum, who had not thought of bring-
ing his weapons on a wedding trip, and so could not defend himself.
They had nearly beaten the life out of him when he fell over and pre-
tended to be dead until lie saw a good chance to jump up and get away.
The Possum never got a wife, but he remembers the lesson, and ever
since he shuts his eyes and pretends to be dead when the hunter has
him in a close corner.
23. THE RABBIT DINES THE BEAR
The Rear 'united the Rabbit to dine with him. They had beans in
the pot. but there was no grease for them, so the Bear cut a slit i n his
side and let the oil run out until they had enough to cook the dinner.
The Rabbit looked surprised, and thought to himself. ••That's a handy
l'.t ETII— 01 18
274 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ETH.AHN.ly
way. I think I'll try that." When he started home he invited the
Bear to come and take dinner with him four days later.
When the Bear came the Babbit .said, " I have beans for dinner, too.
Now I'll yet the grease for them." So he took a knife and drove it into
his side, but instead of oil, a stream of blood gushed out and he fell
over nearly dead. The Bear picked him up and had hard work to tie
up the wound and stop the bleeding. Then he scolded him, "You
little fool, I'm large and strong and lined with fat all over; the knife
don't hurt me; but you're small and lean, and you can't do such
things."
24. THE RABBIT ESCAPES FROM THE WOLVES
Some Wolves once caught the Rabbit and were going to eat him
when he asked leave to show them a new dance he was practicing.
They knew that the Rabbit was a great song leader, and they wanted to
learn the latest dance, so they agreed and made a ring about him
while he got ready. He patted his feet and began to dance around in
a circle, singing:
Tldge'sili'in' iinli'xiii'xkhi'hS. —
Ha' unt lil! Hi: Ha/nia I; I.' til!
On tin- edge of the field I dance about —
Ha'nialfl! 111! Ha'nia 111! HI!
"Now," said the Rabbit, "when I sing 'on the edge of the field,' I
dance that way" — and he danced over in that direction — "and when I
sing 7;/ .'///.'" you must all stamp your feet hard." The Wolves thought
it fine. He began another round singing the same song, and danced
a little nearer to the field, while the Wolves all stamped their feet,
lie sang louder and louder and danced nearer and nearer to the field
until at the fourth song, when the Wolves were stamping as hard as
they could and thinking only of the song, he made one jump and
was off through the long grass. They were after him at once, but he
ran for a hollow stump and climbed up on the inside. When the
the Wolves got there one of them put his head inside to look up, but
the Rabbit spit into his eye, so that he had to pull his head out again.
The others were afraid to try, and they went away, with the Rabbit
still in the stump.
25. FLINT VISITS THE RABBIT
In the old days Tawi'skala (Flint) lived up in the mountains, and all
the animals hated him because he had helped to kill so many of them.
They used to get together to talk over means to put him out of the
way, but everybody was afraid to venture near his house until the
Rabbit, who was the boldest leader among them, offered to go after
Flint and try to kill him. They told him where to find him, and the
Rabbit set out and at last came to Flint's house.
FLINT VISITS THE BABBIT 275
Flint was standing at his door when the Rabbit came up and said,
sneeringly, "Siyu'f Hello! Arc you the fellow they call Flint?"
"Yes; that's what they call me," answered Flint. " Is this where you
live?" "Yes; this iswhere I live." All this time the Rabbit was
looking about the place trying to study out some plan t<> take Flint off
hi- guard, lie bad expected Flint to invite him into the house, so he
waited a Little while hut when Flint made no move, he said, •■Well.
my name is Rabbit; I've heard a good deal about you. so I came to
iu\ ite you to come ami see ine."
Flint wanted to know where the Rabbit's house was. ami he told him
it was down in the broom-grass field near the river. So Flintpromised
to make him a visit in a few days. "Why not come now and have
supperwith me?" said the Rabbit, and after a little coaxing Flint
agreed and the two started down the mountain together.
When they came near the Rabbit's hole the Rabbit said. ••There is
my house, hut in summer I generally stay outside here where it is
cooler.'" So he made a fire, and they had their supper on the grass.
When it was over, Flint stretched out to rest and the Rabbit got some
heavy sticks and his knife and cut out a mallet and wedge. Flint
looked up and asked what that was for. '"Oh," said the Rabhit. "I
like to be doing something, and they may come handy." So Flint lay
down again, and pretty soon he was sound asleep. The Rabbit spoke
to him once or twice to make sure, but there was no answer. Then he
came over to Flint and with one good blow of the mallet he drove the
sharp -take into his body and ran with all his might for his own hole;
but before he reached it there was a loud explosion, and pieces of flint
flew all about. That is why we find flint in so many places now. One
piece struck the Rabbit from behind and cut him just as he dived into
his hole. He sat listening until everything seemed quiet again. Then
he put his head out to look around, but just at that moment another
piece fell and struck him on the lip and split it. as we -till see it.
26. HOW THE DEER GOT HIS HORNS
In the beginning the Deer had no horns, but his head was smooth
just like a doe'-. He was a great runner and the Rabbit was a great
jumper, and the animals were all curious to know which could go
farther in the same time. They talked about it a good deal, and at
last arranged a match between the two. and made a nice large pair of
antlers for a prize to the winner. They were to start together from
one side of a thicket and go through it, then turn and come back, and
tin- one who came out first was to get the horns.
On the day fixed all the animals were there, with the antlers put
down on the ground at the edge of the thicket to mark the starting
point. While everybody was admiring the horns the Rabbit said: " I
don't know this part of the country; I want to take a look through
27<) MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
the bushes where I am to run." They thought that all right, so the
Rabbit went into the thicket, but he was gone so long that at last the
animals suspected he must he up to one of his tricks. They sent a
messenger to look for him, and away in the middle of the thicket he
found the Rabbit gnawing down the hushes and pulling them away
until he had a road cleared nearly to the other side.
The messenger turned around quietly and came back and told the
other animals. When the Rabbit came out at last they accused him of
cheating, but he denied it until they went into the thicket and found
the cleared road. They agreed that such a trickster had no right to
enter the race at all, so they gave the horns to the Deer, who was
admitted to be the best runner, and he has worn them ever since.
They told the Rabbit that as he was so fond of cutting down bushes he
might do that for a living hereafter, and so he does to this day.
27. WHY THE DEER'S TEETH ARE BLUNT
The Rabbit felt sore because the Deer had won the horns (see the
last story), and resolved to get even. One day soon after the race he
stretched a large grapevine across the trail and gnawed it nearly in
two in the middle. Then he went back a piece, took a good run. and
jumped up at the vine. He kept on running and jumping up at the
vine until the Deer came along and asked him what he was doing?
"Don't you see?" says the Rabbit. "I'm so strong that I can bite
through that grapevine at one jump."
The Deer could hardly believe this, and wanted to see it done. So
the Rabbit ran back, made a tremendous spring, and bit through the
vim 1 where he had gnawed it before. The Deer, when he saw that,
said. " Well, I can do it if you can." So the Rabbit stretched a larger
grapevine across the trail, but without gnawing it in the middle. The
Deer ran back as he had seen the Rabbit do, made a spring, and struck
the grapevine right in the center, but it only flew back and threw him
over on his head. He tried again and again, until he was all bruised
and bleeding.
"Let me see your teeth," at last said the Rabbit. So the Deer
show cd him his teeth, which were long like a wolf's teeth, but not very
sharp.
"No wonder you can't do it," says the Rabbit; "your teeth are too
blunt to bite anything. Let me sharpen them for 3-011 like mine. My
teeth are so sharp that I can cut through a stick just like a knife."
And he showed him a black locust twig, of which rabbits gnaw the
young shoots, which he had shaved off as well as a knife could do it,
in regular rabbit fashion. The Deer thought that just the thing.
So the Rabbit got a hard stone with rough edges and filed and filed
away at the Deer's teeth until they were worn down almost to the gums.
FATE OF THE RABBIT "-'77
•■ It hurts," said the Deer; but the Rabbit said ii always hurt a little
when they began to get sharp; so the Deer kept quiet.
•• Now try it." at last said the Rabbit. So the Deer tried again,
but this time he could not bite at all.
•• Now you've paid for your horns," said the Rabbit, as he jumped
away through the bushes. Ever since then the Deer's teeth arc so
blunt that he can not chew anything but grass and leave-.
28. WHAT BECAME OF THE RABBIT
The Deer was very angry at the Rabbit for filing his teeth and deter-
mined to lie revenged, hut he kept still and pretended to be friendly until
the Rabbit was oti his guard. Then one day. as they were going along
together talking, he challenged the Rabbit to jump against him. Now
the Rabbit is a great juniper, as every one knows, so he agreed at once.
There was a small stream beside the path, as there generally is in that
country, and the Deer said:
"Let's see if you can jump across this branch. We'll go hack a
piece, and then when I say h'1'1.' then both run and jump."
•' All right." said the Rabbit. So they went hack to get a good -tart.
and when the Deer gave the word Kfi .' they ran tor the stream, and
the Rabbit made one jump and landed on the other side. But the Deer
had stopped on the bank, and when the Rabbit looked hack the Deer
had eonjured the stream so that it was a large river. The Rabbil was
never able to get hack again and is still on the other side. The rabbit
that we know is only a little thing that came afterwards.
29. WHY THE MINK SMELLS
The Mink was such a great thief that at last the animals held a coun-
cil about the matter. It was decided to burn him. so they caught the
Mink, built a great tire, and threw him into it. As the blaze went up
and they smelt the roasted flesh, they began to think he was punished
enough and would probably do better in the future, so they took him
out of the tire. But the Mink was already burned black and is black
ever since, and whenever he is attacked or excited lie smells again like
roasted meat. The lesson did no good, however, and he is still a- great
a thief a- ever.
30. WHY THE MOLE LIVES UNDERGROUND
A man was in love with a woman who disliked him and would have
nothing to do with him. He tried every way to win her favor, hut to
no purpose, until at last lie grew discouraged and made himself sick
thinking over it. The Mole came along, and finding him in such low
condition asked what was the trouble. The man told him the whole
story, and when he had finished the Mole said: "I can help you, so
that -lie will not only like you, but will come to VOU of her own will."
278 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ahs.19
So that night the Mole burrowed his way underground to where the
girl was in bed asleep and took out her heart. He came hack by the
same way and gave the heart to the man, who could not see it even
when it was put into his hand. ''There," said the Mole, "swallow it,
and she will be drawn to come to you and can not keep away." The
man swallowed the heart, and when the girl woke up she somehow
thought at once of him, and felt a strange desire to be with him, as
though she must go to him at once. She wondered and could not
understand it. because she had always disliked him before, but at last
the feeling grew so strong that she was compelled to go herself to the
man and tell him she loved him and wanted to be his wife. And so
they were married, but all the magicians who had known them both
were surprised and wondered how it had come about. When they
found that it was the work of the Mole, whom they had always before
thought too insignificant for their notice, they were very jealous and
threatened to kill him, so that he hid himself under the ground and
has never since dared to come up to the surface.
31. THE TERRAPIN'S ESCAPE FROM THE WOLVES
The Possum and the Terrapin went out together to hunt persim-
mons, and found a tree full of ripe fruit. The Possum climbed it and
was throwing down the persimmons to the Terrapin when a wolf came
up and began to snap at the persimmons as they fell, before the Ter-
rapin could reach them. The Possum waited his chance, and at last
managed to throw down a large one (some say a bone which he carried
with him), so that it lodged in the wolfs throat as he jumped up at it
and choked him to death. " I'll take his ears for hominy spoons," -aid
the Terrapin, and cut off the wolf's ears and started home with them,
leaving the Possum still eating persimmons up in the tree. After
a while he came to a house and was invited to have some kanahdna
gruel from the jar that is set always outside the door. He sat down
beside the jar and dipped up the gruel with one of the wolf's ears for
a spoon. The people noticed and wondered. When he was satisfied
he went on, but soon came to another house and was asked to have
some more kanahe'na. He dipped it up again with the wolf's ear and
went on when he had enough. Soon the news went around that the
Terrapin had killed the Wolf and was using his ears for spoons. All
the Wolves got together and followed the Terrapin's trail until they
came up with him and made him prisoner. Then they held a council
to decide what to do with him, and agreed to boil him in a clay pot.
They brought in a pot, but the Terrapin only laughed at it and said
that if they put him into that thing he would kick it all to pieces.
They said they would burn him in the fire, but the Terrapin laughed
again and said he would put it out. Then they decided to throw him
into the deepest hole in the river and drown him. The Terrapin
mooney] OBIGUN OE THE GBOUNDHOG DANCE 279
begged and prayed them not to do that, but they paid no attention, and
dragged him over to the river and threw him in. Thai was jus! what
the Terrapin had been waiting for all the time, and he dived under the
water and came up on the other side and got away.
Some >a\ thai when he was thrown into the river he struck againsl
a rock, which broke his hack in a dozen places. He sang a medicine
-one':
I il'l'ifllij, ' iri), I ill', I, III, ' II l'l,
I have sewed myself together, I have sewed myself together,
and the pieces came toe-ether, hut the scars remain on his shell to this
day.
32. ORIGIN OF THE GROUNDHOG DANCE: THE GROUNDHOGS
HEAD
Seven wolves once caught a Groundhog and said. "Now we'll kill
you ami have something good to cat." But the Groundhog- said.
•• When we find good food we must rejoice over it, as people do in the
Green-corn dance. I know you mean to kill me and I can't help my-
self, but if you want to dance I'll sing for you. This is a new dance
entirely. I'll lean up against seven trees in turn and you will dance
out and then turn and come back, as T give the signal, and at the last
turn you may kill me.''
The wolves were very hungry, but they wanted to learn the new
dance, so they told him to go ahead. The Groundhog leaned up against
a tree and began the song. //</' ' u-iij, ', In' . and all the wolves danced out
in front, until he gave the signal, Yu! and began with ///';/, i,/u'„;\
when they turned and danced back in line. •'That's tine," said the
Groundhog, and went over to the next tree and started thesecond song.
The wolves danced out and then turned at the signal and danced
hack again. "''Unit's very tine,"' said the Groundhog, and went over
to another tree and started the third song. The wolves danced their
lust and the Groundhog encouraged them, but at each song he took
another tree, and each tree was a little nearer to his hole under a stump.
At the seventh song he said. "Now, this is the last dance, and when I
say Yu.' you will all turn and come after me, and the one who gets me
may have me." So he began the seventh song and kept it up until
the wolves were away out in front. Then he gave the signal, Yu! and
made a jump for his hole. The wolves turned and were after him. but
he reached the hole first and dived in. Just as he got inside, the fore-
most wolf caught him by the tail and gave it such a pull that it broke
nil. and the Groundhog's tail ha- been short ever since.
*******
The unpleasant smell of the Groundhog's head was given it U\ the
other animals to punish an insulting remark made by him in council.
The story is a vulgar one. without wit enough to make it worth
recording.
280 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ahn.19
33. THE MIGRATION OF THE ANIMALS
In the old times when the animals used to talk and hold councils,
and the Grubworm and Woodchuck used to marry people, there was
once a great famine of mast in the mountains, and all the animals and
birds which lived upon it met together and sent the Pigeon out to
the low country to see if any food could be found there. After a
time she came back and reported that she had found a country where
the mast was "up to our ankles" on the ground. So they got
together and moved down into the low country in a great army.
34. THE WOLF'S REVENGE— THE WOLF AND THE DOG
Kana'ti had wolves to hunt for him, because they are good hunters
and never fail. He once sent out two wolves at once. One went to
the cast and did not return. The other went to the north, and when
he returned at night and did not find his fellow he knew he must be
in trouble and started after him. After traveling on some time
he found his brother lying nearly dead beside a great greensnake
(sdMkw&'yi) which had attacked him. The snake itself was too badly
wounded to crawl away, and the angry wolf, who had magic powers,
taking out several hairs from his own whiskers, shot them into the
body of the snake and killed it. He then hurried back to Kana'ti,
who sent the Terrapin after a great doctor who lived in the west to
save the wounded wolf. The wolf went back to help his brother and
by his magic powers he had him cured long before the doctor came
from the west, because the Terrapin was such a slow traveler and the
doctor had to prepare his roots before he started.
* * * * * * *
In the beginning, the people say, the Dog was put on the mountain
and the Wolf beside the fire. When the winter came the Dog could
not stand the cold, so he came down to the settlement and drove the
Wolf from the fire. The Wolf ran to the mountains, where it suited
him so well that he prospered and increased, until after a while he
ventured down again and killed some animals in the settlements. The
people got together and followed and killed him, but his brothers
came from the mountains and took such revenge that ever since the
people have been afraid to hurt a wolf.
Bird Myths
35. the bird tribes
Winged creatures of all kinds arc classed under the generic term of
anind' hiUdd 1 hA (flyers). Birds are called, alike in the singular and
plural, tsi'shwa, the term being generally held to exclude the domestic
fowls introduced by the whites. When it is necessary to make the
distinction they are mentioned, respectively, as in&gehA (living in the
mooney] THE EAGLE 281
woods), and uhtnm'ta (tame). The robin is called tsiskwa'gwd, a name
which ran nut be analyzed, while the little sparrow is called tsishod'yd
(the real or principal bird), perhaps, in accord with a principle in
Indian nomenclature, on accou.nl of its wide distribution. .V- in other
languages, many of the bird names are onomatopes, as 10a huhv! (the
screech owl), u'guku' (the booting owl), wagvll' (the whippoorwill),
Mgil (the crow), gUgtoS' (the quail), huhu (the yellow mocking bird),
tsi' k, !',!,' (the chickadee), salsa! (the goose). The turtledove is called
gid&'-diskanihl' (it cries for acorns), on account of the resemblance of
its cry to the sound id' the word for acorn [guW). 'Idle meadow lark
IS called tldhaisi' (star), on account of the appearance of its tail when
spread out as it soars. The nuthatch (Sitta carolvnensis) is called
tsuliefna (deaf), and is supposed to be without hearing, possibly on
account of its fearless disregard for man's presence. Certain diseases
are diagnosed by the doctors as due to birds, either revengeful bird
ghosts, bird feathers about the house, or bird shadows falling upon the
patient from overhead.
The eagle (cwd'hUi) is the great sacred bird of the Cherokee, a- of
nearly all our native tribes, ami figures prominently in their ceremo-
nial ritual, especially in all things relating to war. The particular
species prized was the golden or war eagle (Aquila chryscetus), called
by the Cherokee the "pretty-feathered eagle." on account of its beau
tiful tail feathers, white, tipped with black, which were in such great
demand for decorative and ceremonial purposes that among the west
ern tribes a single tail was often rated as equal in value to a horse.
Among the Cherokee in the old times the killing of an eagle was an e\ cut
which concerned the whole settlement, and could be undertaken only
by the professional eagle killer, regularly chosen for the purpose on
account of his knowledge of the prescribed forms and the prayers to
be said afterwards in order to obtain pardon for the necessary sacrilege,
and thus ward off vengeance from the tribe. It is told of one man upon
the reservation that having deliberately killed an eagle in defiance of
the ordinances he was constantly haunted by dreams of tierce eagles
swooping down upon him. until the nightmare was finally exorcised
after a lone- course of priestly treatment. In 1890 there was but one
eagle killer remaining among the East Cherokee. It does not appear
that the eagle was ever captured alive as among the plains tribes.
The eagle must be killed only in the winter or late fall after the
crops were gathered and the snakes had retired to their dens. If killed
in the summertime a frost would come to destroy the corn, while the
songs of the Eagle dance, when tlie feathers were brought home,
would so anger the snakes that they would become doubly dangerous.
Consequently the Eagle songs were never sung until after the snakes
had gone to sleep for the winter.
When the people of a town had decided upon an Eagle dance the
282
MYTHS OF THE CHKKoKKK
[ETH. ANN. 19
eagle killer was called in. frequently from a distant settlement, to
procure the feathers for the occasion. He was paid for his services
from offerings made later at the dance, and as the few professionals
guarded their secrets carefully from outsiders their business was a quite
profitable one. After some preliminary preparation the eagle killer
sets out alone for the mountains, taking with him his gun or bow and
arrows. Having reached the mountains, he goes through a vigil of
prayer and fasting, possibly lasting four days, after which he hunts
until he succeeds in killing a deer. Then, placing the body in a con-
1 .r™i|Pr
s
IT! IP
j
Fig. 1 — Feather wand of Eagle dance (made by John Ax).
venient exposed situation upon one of the highest cliffs, he conceals
himself near by and begins to sing in a low undertone the songs to call
down the eagles from the sky. When the eagle alights upon the car-
cass, which will be almost immediately if the singer understands his
business, he shoots it, and then standing over the dead bird, he
addresses to it a prayer in which he begs it not to seek vengeance
upon his tribe, because it is not a Cherokee, but a Spaniard (Askwa'ni)
that has done the deed. The selection of such a vicarious victim
of revenge is evidence at once of the antiquity of the prayer in its
present form and of the enduring impression which the cruelties of
the early Spanish adventurers made upon the natives.
MOONKYl THE EAGLE — THE RAVEN 283
The piaycr ended, be leaves the dead eagle where it fell and makes
all haste to the settlement, where the people are anxiously expecting
his return. On meeting the first warriors he says simply, "A -now
bird has died." and passes on at once to his own quarters, hi- work
being now finished. The announcement is made in this form in order
to insure against the vengeance of any eagles that might overhear, the
little snowbird being considered too insignificant a creature to be
dreaded.
Having waited four days to allow time for the insect parasites to
leave the body, the hunters delegated for the purpose go out to bring
in the feathers. On arriving' at the place they strip the body of the
large tail and wing feathers, which they wrap in a fresh deerskin
brought with them, and then return to the settlement, leaving the
body of the dead eagle upon the ground, together with that of the
slain deer, the latter being intended as a sacrifice to the eagle spirits.
On reaching the settlement, the feathers, still wrapped in the deer-
skin. arc 1 hung up in a small, round hut built for this special purpose
near the edge of the dance ground (detsdnHfl'li) and known as the
place "where the feathers are kept," or feather house. Some settle-
ments had two such feather houses, one at each end of the dance
ground. The Eagle dance was held on the night of the same day on
which the feathers were brought in. all the, necessary arrangements
having been made beforehand. In the meantime, as the feathers were
supposed to be hungry after their journey, a dish of venison and corn
was set upon the ground below them and they were invited to eat.
The body of a flaxbird or scarlet tanager {Piranga rubra) was also
hung up with the feathers for the same purpose. The food thus given
to the feathers was disposed of after the dance, a- described in another
place.
The eagle being regarded as a great ada'wehl, only the greatest war-
riors and those versed in the sacred ordinances would dare to wear the
feathers or to carry them in the dance. Should any person in the settle-
ment dream of eagles or eagle feathers he must arrange for an Eagle
dance, with the usual vigil and fasting, at the first opportunity; other-
wise some one of his family will die. Should the insect parasites
which infest the feathers of the bird in life get upon a man they will
breed a skin disease which is sure to develop, even though it may lie
latent for years. It is for this reason that the body of the eagle is
allowed to remain four days upon the ground before being brought
into the settlement.
The raven (kd'ldnU) is occasionally seen in the mountains, but i- not
prominent in folk belief, excepting in connection with the grewsome
tale- of the Haven Mocker (q. v.). In former times its name was some
times assumed as a war title. The crow, so prominent in other tribal
mythologies, does not seem to appear in that of the Cherokee. Three
284 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
varieties of owls are recognized, each under a different name, viz:
tsl.ih', the dusky horned owl (£ubo virginiamus satnifgius)', u'guku',
the barred or hooting owl {Syrniwn nebulosivm), and wa huku', the
screech owl ( M< gascops a$io). The first of these names signifies a witch.
the others being onomatopes. Owls and other night-crying birds are
believed to be embodied ghosts or disguised witches, and their cry is
dreaded as a sound of evil omen. If the eyes of a child be bathed
with water in which one of the long wing or tail feathers of an owl
has been soaked, the child will be able to keep awake all night. The
feather must be found by chance, and not procured intentionally for
the purpose. On the other hand, an application of water in which
the feather of a blue jay, procured in the same way, has been .soaked
will make the child an early riser.
The buzzard (suli') is said to have had a part in shaping the earth,
as was narrated in the genesis myth. It is reputed to be a doctor
among birds, and is respected accordingly, although its feathers are
never worn by ball players, for fear of becoming bald. Its own bald-
ness is accounted for by a vulgar story. As it thrives upon carrion
and decay, it is held to be immune from sickness, especially of a con-
tagious character, and a small quantity of its flesh eaten, or of the
soup used as a wash, is believed to be a sure preventive of smallpox,
and was used for this purpose during the smallpox epidemic among
the East Cherokee in 1866. According to the Wahnenauhi manu-
script, it is said also that a buzzard feather placed over the cabin door
will keep out witches. In treating gunshot wounds, the medicine is
blown into the wound through a tube cut from a buzzard quill and
some of the buzzard's down is afterwards laid over the spot.
There is very little concerning hawks, excepting as regards the
great mythic hawk, the Tla'nmvct'. The tl&'nuwti! usdi', or '"little
tla'nuwa," is described as a bird about as large as a turkey and of a
grayish blue color, which used to follow the flocks of wild pigeons. Hy-
ing overhead and darting down occasionally upon a victim, which it
struck and killed with its sharp breast and ate upon the wing, without
alighting. It is probably the goshawk (Astur atricapUkis).
The common swamp gallinule. locally known as mudhen or didapper
(G-ailwadagaleata), is called diga'gwwil' (lame or crippled), on account
of its habit of flying only for a very short distance at a time. In the
Diga'gwani dance the performers sing the name of the bird and
endeavor to imitate its halting movements. The dagtitfou, or white-
fronted goose (Anser cdiifrons), appears in connection with the myth
of the origin of tobacco. The feathers of the tskw&yi, the great white
heron or American egret (BJeeodias egretta), are worn by ball players,
and this bird probably the "swan" whose white wing was used as a
peace emblem in ancient times.
A rare bird said to have been seen occasionally upon the reservation
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XV
SAWANU'Gi, A CHEROKEE BALL-PLAYER
mooney] THE BIRD TRIBES 285
many years ago was called by the curious name of nHfldd-dikani' ', "it
looks at the sun," "sun-gazer." It is described as resembling a blue
crane, and may possibly have been 1 1 » * - Floridus cerulea, or little blue
heron. Another infrequent visitor, which sometimes passed over the
mountain country in company with flocks of wild geese, was the
git'wisguwi', so called from its cry. It is described as resembling a
large snipe with yellow leys ;m< i feet unwebbed, and is thought to
visit Indian Territory at intervals. It is chiefly notable from the
fact that the celebrated chief John Ross derives his Indian name,
Gu'wisguwi', from this bird, the name being perpetuated in Coowee-
scoowee district of the Cherokee Nation in the West.
Another chance visitant, concerning which there is much curious
speculation among the older men of the East Cherokee, was called
tsun'digwuntsu' gi or tsun'digwdn'tsM, ""forked." referring to the tail.
It appeared but once, for a short season, about forty years ago, ami
has not been seen since. It is said to have been pale blue, with red
in places, and nearly the size of a crow, and to have had a lone-
forked tail like that of a fish. It preyed upon hornets, which it took
upon the winy, and also feasted upon the larv;e in the nests. Appear
ing unexpectedly and as suddenly disappearing, it was believed to be
not a bird but a transformed red-horse fish {Moxostoma, Cherokee
dligd'), a theory borne out by the red spots and the long, forked tail. It
is even maintained that about the time those birds first appeared some
hunters on Oconaluftee saw seven of them sitting on the limb of a tree
and they were still shaped like a red-horse, although they already had
wines and feathers. It was undoubtedly the scissor-tail or swallow-
tailed flycatcher (Mihndus forficabus), which belongs properly in Texas
and the adjacent region, but strays occasionally into the eastern states.
On account of the red throat appendage of the turkey, somewhat
resembling the goitrous growth known in the South as "kernels"
(Cherokee, dideUsi), the feathers of this bird are not worn by ball
players, neither is the neck allowed to be eaten by children or sick
persons, under the fear that a growth of "kernels" would be the
result. The meat of the rutted grouse, locally known as the pheasant
[Sonasa umbettus), is tabued to a pregnant woman, because this bird
hatches a large brood, but loses most of them before maturity. Under
a stricter construction of the theory this meat is forbidden to a woman
until she is past child bearing.
The redbird, tatsu'hwd, is believed to have been originally the
daughter of the Sun (see the story). The huhu, or yellow mocking-
bird, occurs in several stories. It is regarded as something supernat-
ural, possibly on account of its imitative powers, and its heart is given
to children to make them quick to learn.
The chickadee {Parux carol hunsis), tsilili!;'. and the tufted tit-
mouse, {Parw bicolor), utsu''gi, or u'sttiti, are both regarded as news
286 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth. asn.19
bringers, but the one is venerated as a truth teller while the other
is scoffed at as a lying' messenger, for reasons which appear in the
story of Nunyunu'wi (q. v.). When the tsikilili' perches on a branch
near the house and chirps its song it is taken as an omen that an absent
friend will soon be heard from or that a secret enemy is plotting mis-
chief. Many stories are told in confirmation of this belief, among
which may 1 le instanced that of Tom Starr, a former noted outlaw of the
Cherokee Nation of the West, who, on one occasion, was about to walk
unwittingly into an ambush prepared for him along a narrow trail,
when he heard the warning note of the tsikilili', and, turning abruptly,
ran up the side of the ridge and succeeded in escaping with his life,
although hotly pursued by his enemies.
36. THE BALL GAME OF THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS
Once the animals challenged the birds to a great ballplay. and the
birds accepted. The leaders made the arrangements and fixed the
day. and when the time came both parties met at the place for the
ball dance, the animals on a smooth grassy bottom near the river and
the birds in the treetops over by the ridge. The captain' of the animals
was the Bear, who was so strong and heavy that he could pull down
anyone who got in his way. All along the road to the ball ground
he was tossing up great logs to show his strength and boasting of
what he would do to the birds when the game began. The Terrapin,
too — not the little one we have now, but the great original Terrapin —
was with the animals. His shell was so hard that the heaviest blows
could not hurt him, and he kept rising up on his hind legs and drop-
ping heavily again to the ground, bragging that this was the way he
would crush any bird that tried to take the ball from him. Then
there was the Deer, who could outrun every other animal. Alto-
gether it was a tine company.
The birds had the Eagle for their captain, with the Hawk and the
great Tla'nuwa, all swift and strong of flight, but still they were a
little afraid of the animals. The dance was over and they were all
pruning their feathers up in the trees and waiting for the captain to
give the word when here came two little things hardly larger than
field mice climbing up the tree in which sat perched the bird captain.
At last they reached the top, and creeping along the limb to where
the Eagle captain sat they asked to be allowed to join in the game.
The captain looked at them, and seeing that they were four-footed, he
asked why they did not go to the animals, where they belonged. The
little things said that they had, but the animals had made fun of them
and driven them off because they were so small. Then the bird cap-
tain pitied them and wanted to take them.
But how could they join the birds when they had no wings '. The
Eagle, the Hawk, and the others consulted, and at last it was decided
boone\ THE BALL SAME OF BIRDS AND ANIMALS 287
to make some wings for the little fellows. They tried for a lone- time
to think of something that might do, until someone happened to
remember the drum they had used in the dance. The head was of
ground-hog -kin and maybe they could cut oil* a corner and make
wine-sot' it. So they took two pieces of leather from the drumhead
and cut them into shape for wines, and stretched them with cane
splint- and fastened them on to the forelegs of one of the small ani-
mal-, and in this way came Tla'mehd, the Hat. They threw tie- ball
to him and told him to catch it. and by the way he dodged and circled
about, keeping the hall always in the air and never letting it fall to the
ground, the birds soon saw that he would be one of their best men.
Now they wanted to fix the other little animal, but they had \\>rt\
up all their leather to make wines for the Bat, and there was no time
to send for more. Somebody said that they might do it by stretching
hi- skin, so two large birds took hold from opposite sides with their
strong bills, ami by pulling at his fur for several minutes they man-
aged to stretch the skin on each side between the fore and hind
feet, until they had Tewa, the Flying Squirrel. To try him the bird
captain threw up the ball, when the Flying Squirrel sprang off the
limb after it, caught it in his teeth and carried it through the air to
another tree nearly across the bottom.
"When they were all ready the signal was given and thegame began,
but almost at the first toss the Flying Squirrel caught the ball and
carried it up a tree, from which he threw it to the birds, who kepi it
in the air for some time until it dropped. The Bear rushed to gel it.
but the Martin darted after it and threw it to the Bat, who was flying
near the ground, and by his dodging and doubling kept it out of the
way of even the Deer, until he finally threw it in between the post- and
won the game for the birds.
The Bear and the Terrapin, who had boasted so of what they would
do, never got a chance even to touch the ball. For saving the ball
when it dropped, the birds afterwards gave the Martin a gourd in
which to build hi- nest, and he still has it.
37. HOW THE TURKEY GOT HIS BEARD
When the Terrapin won the race from the Rabbit (see the story) all
the animals wondered and talked about it a great deal, because they
had always thought the Terrapin slow, although they knew that he
was a warrior and had many conjuring secrets beside. But the Turkey
was not satisfied and told the others there must be some trick aboul it.
Said he. "I know the Terrapin can't run — he can hardly crawl and
I'm going to try him."
So one day the Turkey met the Terrapin coming home from war
with a fresh scalp hanging from his neck and dragging on the ground
a- he traveled. The Turkey laughed at the sight and said: •"That
288 MYTHS OF THE CHEKOKEE [eth.a.nn.19
scalp don't look right on you. Your neck is too short and low down
to wear it that way. Let me show you."
The Terrapin agreed and gave the scalp to the Turkey, who fastened
it around his neck. "'Now." said the Turkey. "I'll walk a little way
and you can see how it looks." So he walked ahead a short distance
and then turned and asked the Terrapin how he liked it, Said the,
Terrapin, "It looks very nice; it becomes you."
"'Now I'll fix it in a different way and let you see how 7 it looks." said
the Turkey. So he gave the string another pull and walked ahead again.
"O, that looks very nice." said the Terrapin. But the Turkey kept on
walking, and when the Terrapin called to him to bring back the scalp
he only walked faster and broke into a run. Then the Terrapin got
out his bow and by his conjuring art shot a number of cane splints into
the Turkey's leg to cripple him so that he could not run, which accounts
for all the many small bones in the Turkey's leg, that are of no use
whatever; but the Terrapin never caught the Turkey, who still wears
the scalp from his neck.
38. WHY THE TURKEY GOBBLES
The Grouse used to have a tine voice and a good halloo in the ball-
play. All the animals and birds used to play ball in those days and
were just as proud of a loud halloo as the ball players of to-day. The
Turkey had not a good voice, so he asked the Grouse to give him les-
sons. The Grouse agreed to teach him, but wanted pay for his trouble,
and the Turkey promised to give him some feathers to make himself a
collar. That is how the Grouse got his collar of turkey feathers. They
began the lessons and the Turkey learned very fast until the Grouse
thought it was time to try his voice. "Now," said the Grouse. " I'll
stand on this hollow log, and when I give the signal by tapping on it,
you must halloo as loudly as you can." So he got upon the log ready
to tap on it, as a Grouse does, but when he gave the signal the Turkey
was so eager and excited that he could not raise his voice for a shout,
but only gobbled, and ever since then he gobbles whenever he hears a
noise.
39. HOW THE KINGFISHER GOT HIS BILL
Some old men say that the Kingfisher was meant in the beginning to
be a water bird, but as he had not been given either web feet or a good
bill he could not make a living. The animals held a council over it
and decided to make him a bill like a long sharp awl for a fish-gig (fish-
spear). So they made him a fish-gig and fastened it on in front of his
mouth. He flew to the top of a tree, sailed out and darted down into
the water, and came up with a fish on his gig. And he has been the
best gigger ever since.
Sonic others say it was this way: A Blacksnake found a Yellowham-
THE BEDBIRD's COLOR 28V)
iikt's nc-t in a hollow tree, ami after swallowing the young birds,
coiled up to sleep in the nest, where the mother bird found him when
she came home. She went for help to the Little People, who sent her
to the Kingfisher. He ca and after flying back and forth past the
hole a few times, made one daii at the snake and pulled him out dead.
When they looked they found a hole in the snake's bead where the
Kingfisher had pierced it with a slender tugcttu'/id tish. which he car
ried in his bill like a lance. From this the Little People c bided
that he would make a first-class gigger if he only had the righl spear,
so they gave him his lone- hill as a reward.
40. HOW THE PARTRIDGE GOT HIS WHISTLE
In the old days the Terrapin had a tine whistle, but the Partridge
had none. The Terrapin was constantly going about whistling and
showing his whistle to the other animals until the Partridge became
jealous, so one day when they met the Partridge asked leave to try it.
The Terrapin was afraid to risk it at first, suspecting some trick, but
the Partridge -aid. " I'll give it back right away, and if you an' afraid
you can stay with me while I practice." So the Terrapin let him have
the whistle and the Partridge walked around blowing on it in tine
fashion. •• How does it sound with rpe ?" asked the Partridge. "().
you do very well," --aid the Terrapin, walking alongside. "Now. how
do you like it." said the Partridge, running ahead and whistling a little
faster. "That's tine." answered the Terrapin, hurrying to keep up.
" but don't run so fast." "And now, how do you like this;" called
the Partridge, and with that he spread his wings, gave one long
whistle, and flew to the top of a tree, leaving the poor Terrapin to look
after him from the ground. The Terrapin never recovered his whistle,
and from that, and the loss of his scalp, which the Turkey stole from
him. he grew ashamed to be seen, and ever since he -.huts himself up
in his box when anyone comes near him.
41 HOW THE REDBIRD GOT HIS COLOR
A Raccoon passing a Wolf one day made several insulting remarks,
until at last the Wolf became angry and turned and chased him. The
Raccoon ran his best and managed to reach a tree by the river side
before the Wolf came up. He climbed the tree and stretched out on
a limb overhanging the water. When the Wolf arrived he saw the
reflection in the water, and thinking it was the Raccoon he jumped at
it and was nearly drowned before he could scramble out again, all wet
and dripping. He lay down on the bank to dry and fell asleep, and
while he was sleeping the Raccoon came down tin' tree and plastered
his eyes with dunu'. When the Wolf awoke he found he could not
open hi- eyes, and began to whine. Alone- came a little brown bird
through the bushes and heard the Wolf crying and asked what was
19 ETH— 01 19
290 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
the matter. The Wolf told his story and said. "If you will get my
eyes open. I will show you where to find some nice red paint to paint
yourself." ••All right," said the brown bird; so he peeked at the
Wolfs eyes until he got oil' all the plaster. Then the Wolf took him
to a rock that had streaks of bright red paint running through it. and
the little bird painted himself with it. and has ever since been a Red-
42. THE PHEASANT BEATING CORN; ORIGIN OF THE PHEASANT
DANCE
The Pheasant once saw a woman heating corn in a wooden mortar in
front of the house. "I can do that, too," said he, but the woman
would not believe it, so the Pheasant went into the woods and got upon
a hollow log and •"drummed" with his wings as a pheasant does, until
the people in the house heard him and thought he was really beating
corn.
* * * * * * *
In the Pheasant dance, a part of the Green-corn dance, the instru-
ment used is the drum, and the dancers heat the ground with their feet
in imitation of the drumming sound made by the pheasant. They
form two concentric circles, the men being on the inside, facing the
women in the outer circle, each in turn advancing and retreating at the
signal of the drummer, who sits at one side and sings the Pheasant
songs. According to the story, there was once a winter famine among
the birds and animals. No mast (fallen nuts) could be found in the
woods, and they were near starvation when a Pheasant discovered a
holly tree, loaded with red berries, of which the Pheasant is said to
be particularly fond. He called his companion birds, and they formed
a circle about the tree, singing, dancing, and drumming with their
wings in token of their joy. and thus originated the Pheasant dance.
43. THE RACE BETWEEN THE CRANE AND THE HUMMINGBIRD
The Hummingbird and the Crane were both in love with a pretty
woman. She preferred the Hummingbird, who was as handsome as
the Crane was awkward, but the Crane was so persistent that in order
to get rid of him she finally told him he must challenge the other to
a race and she would marry the winner. The Hummingbird was so
swift — almost like a Hash of lightning — and the Crane so slow and
heavy, that she felt sure the Hummingbird would win. She did not
know the Crane could fly all night.
They agreed to start from her house and fly around the circle of
the world to the beginning, and the one who came in first would marry
the woman. At the word the Hummingbird darted off like an arrow
and was out of sight in a moment, leaving his rival to follow heavily
behind. He flew all day. and when evening came and he stopped to
THE OWL GETS MARRIED 291
roost for the night be was far ahead. I '> m the Crane lieu steadily ;ill
night Long, passing the Hummingbird soon after midnighl and going
on until he came to a creek and stopped to rest about daylight. The
Hummingbird woke up in the morning and flew on again, thinking
how easily he would win the race, until he reached the creek and
there found the Crane spearing tadpoles, with his lone- bill, for break-
fast. He was very nuieh surprised and wondered bow this could have
happened, hut he flew swiftly by and soon left the Crane out of sight
again.
The ('fane finished his breakfast and started on. and when evening
catiie he kept on as before. This time it was hardly midnight when
he passed the Hummingbird asleep on a limb, and in the morning he
had finished his breakfast before the other came up. The next day
he gained a little more, and on the fourth day he was spearing tadpoles
for dinner when the Hummingbird passed him. On the fifth and
sixth days it was late in the afternoon before the Hummingbird came
up. and on the morning of the seventh day the Crane was a whole
night's travel ahead. He took his time at breakfast and then fixed
himself up as nicely as he could at the creek and came in at the start-
ing place where the woman lived, early in the morning. When the
Hummingbird arrived in the afternoon he found he had lost the race,
hut the woman declared she would never have such an ugly fellow as
the Crane for a husband, so she stayed single.
44 THE OWL GETS MARRIED
A widow with one daughter was always warning the girl that she
must be sure to get a good hunter for a husband when she married.
The young woman listened and promised to do as her mother advised.
At last a suitor came to ask the mother for the girl, but the widow
told him that only a good hunter could have her daughter. "1*111 just
that kind." said the lover, and again asked her to speak for him to the
young woman. So the mother went to the girl and told her a young
man had come a-courting, and as he said he was a good hunter she
advised her daughter to take him. '•Just as you say." said the girl.
So when he came again the matter was all arranged, and he went to
live with the girl.
The next morning he got ready and said he would go out hunting,
but before starting he changed his mind and said he would go fishing.
He was gone all day and came home late at night, bringing only three
small fish, saying that he had had no luck, but would have better suc-
cess to-morrow. The next morning he started off again to fish and
was gone all day. but came home at night with only two worthless
spring lizards [duwS'gd) and the same excuse. Next day he said he
would go hunting this time. He was gone again until night, and
292 MYTHS OF THE CHEBOKEE [eth.akk.1S
returned at last with only a handful <>f scraps that he had found where
some hunters had cut up a deer.
By this time the old woman was suspicious. So next morning when
he started off again, as he said, to fish, she told her daughter to follow
him secretly and see how he set to work. The girl followed through
the woods and kept him in sight until he came down to the river, where
she saw her husband change to a hooting owl {ugvJcu') and fly over to
a pile of driftwood in the water and cry, " U-gu-ku! huf lm! u! «/"
She was surprised and very angry and said to herself. "I thought
1 hail married a man. hut my husband is only an owl." She watched
and saw the owl look into the water for a long time and at last
swoop down and tiring up in his (laws a handful of sand, from
which he picked out a crawfish. Then he flew across to the bank, took
the form of a man again, and started home with the crawfish. His
wife hurried on ahead through the woods and got there before him.
When he came in with the crawfish in his hand, she asked him where
were all the fish he had caught. He said he had none, because an owl
had frightened them all away. "I think you are the owl," said his
wife, and drove him out of the house. The owl went into the woods
and there he pined away with grief and love until there was no flesh
left on any part of his body except his head.
45. THE HUHU GETS MARRIED
A widow who had an only daughter, but no son, found it very hard
to make a living and was constantly urging upon the young woman
that they ought to have a man in the family, who would be a good
hunter and able to help in the field. One evening a stranger lover
came courting to the house, and when the girl told him that she could
marry only one who was a good worker, he declared that he was
exactly that sort of man; so the girl talked to her mother, and on her
advice they were married.
The next morning the widow gave her new sondndaw a hoe and sent
him out to the cornfield. When breakfast was ready she went to call
him, following a sound as of some one hoeing on stony soil, but when
she came to the spot she found only a small circle of hoed ground and
no sign of her sondndaw. Away over in the thicket she heard a huhu
calling.
He did not come in for dinner, either, and when he returned home
in the evening the old woman asked him where he had been all day.
"Hard at work," said he. "But I didn't see you when 1 came to call
you to breakfast." " I was down in the thicket cutting sticks to mark
off the field," said he. "But why didn't you come in to dinner??'
" I was too busy working," said he. So the old woman was satisfied,
and they had their supper together.
moonei THE EAGLE'S REVENGE 293
Early next morning In- started off with his hoe over his shoulder.
When breakfast was ready the old woman went again to call him, but
found no sign of him, only the hoe lying there and no work done.
And away over in the thicket a huhu was calling, " Sau-h.' sau-h!
sau-h! ku! I<»: //".' /<».' /"'•' /"'■' chi! chi! chi.'-whew/"
She wont back to the house, and when at last In' came home in the
e\ ening -he asked him again what he had been doing all day. " Work-
ing hard," said he. " But you were not there when I came after you."
■•(). 1 just went over in the thicket a while to sec some of my kins-
folk," said he. Then the old woman -aid. " I have lived here a long
time and there is nothing living in the swamp but huhus. My daugh-
ter wants u husband that can work and not a lazy huhu; so you may
go." And she drove him from the house.
46. WHY THE BUZZARD'S HEAD IS BARE
The buzzard used to have a tine topknot, of which he was so proud
that he refused to eat carrion, and while the other birds were pecking
at the body of a deer or other animal which they had found he would
strut around and say: "You may have it all. it is not good enough for
me." They resolved to punish him. and with the help of the buffalo
carried out a plot by which the buzzard lost not his topknot alone, but
nearly all the other feathers on his head. He lost his pride at the
same time, so that he is willing enough now to eat carrion for a living.
47. THE EAGLE'S REVENGE
Once a hunter in the mountains heard a noise at night like a rushing
wind outside the cabin, and on going out he found that an eagle had
just alighted on the drying pole and was tearing at the body of a deer
hanging there. Without thinking of the danger, he shot the eagle.
In the morning he took the deer and started back to the settlement,
where he told what he had done, and the chief sent out some men to
bring in the eagle and arrange for an Eagle dance. They brought
back the dead eagle, everything was made ready, and that night they
-tailed thi' dance in the townhouse.
About midnight there was a whoop outside and a strange warrior
came into the circle and began to recite his exploits. X ■ knew
him, but they thought he had come from one of the farther Cherokee
towns. He told how he had killed a' man. and at the end of the story
he gave a hoarse yell. Hi! that startled the whole company, and one of
the seven men with the rattle- fell over dead. He sang of another
deed, and at the end straightened up with another loud yell. A second
rattler fell dead, and the ] pie were so full of fear that they could
not stir from their place-. Still he kept on. and at every pause there
came again that terrible scream, until the last of the seven rattlers fell
dead, and then the stranger went out into the darkness. Long after-
2U4 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
ward they learned from the eagle killer that it was the brother of the
eagle shot by the hunter.
48. THE HUNTER AND THE BUZZARD
A hunter had been all day looking for deer in the mountains without
success until he was completely tired out and sat down on a log to rest
and wonder what he should do. when a buzzard — a bird which always
has magic powers — came flying overhead and spoke to him, asking him
what was his trouble. When the hunter had told his story the buzzard
said there were plenty of deer on the ridges beyond if only the hunter
were high up in the air where he could see them, and proposed that
they exchange forms for a while, when the buzzard would go home to
the hunter's wife while the hunter would go to look for deer. The
hunter agreed, and the buzzard became a man and went home to the
hunter's wife, who received him as her husband, while the hunter
became a buzzard and new off over the mountain to locate the deer.
After staying some time with the woman, who thought always it was
her real husband, the buzzard excused himself, saying he must go
again to look for game or they would have nothing to eat. He came
to the place where he had first met the hunter, and found him already
there, still in buzzard form, awaiting him. He asked the hunter what
success he had had, and the hunter replied that he had found several
deer over the ridge, as the buzzard had said. Then the buzzard
restored the hunter to human shape, and became himself a buzzard
again and flew away. The hunter went where he had seen the deer
and killed several, and from that time he never returned empty-handed
from the woods.
Snake. Fish, and Insect Myths
49. the snake tribe
The generic name for snakes is m&d>&'. They are all regarded as
anida'wehl, " supernaturals," having an intimate connection with the
rain and thunder gods, ami possessing a certain influence over the other
animal and plant tribes. It is said that the snakes, the deer, and the
ginseng act as allies, so that an injury to one is avenged by all. The
feeling toward snakes is one of mingled fear and reverence, and every
precaution is taken to avoid killing or offending one, especially the
rattlesnake. He who kills a snake will soon see others; and should he
kill a second one, so many will come around him whichever way he
may turn that he will become dazed at the sight of their glistening
eyes and darting tongues and will go wandering about like a crazy man,
unable to find his way out of the woods. To guard against this mis-
fortune there are certain prayers which the initiated say in order that
a snake may not cross their path, and on meeting the first one of the
THE SNAKE TRIBE 295
season the hunter huinbh begs of him, "Let us nol see each other this
summer.''' Certain smells, as thai of the wild parsnip, and certain
songs, as those of the Unika'wl or Townhouse dance, arc offensive to
the snakes ami make them angry. For this reason the I'nika'u 1 dance
is held ..nix late in the fall, after they have retired to their dens for
the « inter.
When one dreams of being bitten by a snake lie must he treated t li<'
same as for an actual bite, because it is a snake ghosl thai has Kitten
hi in; otherwise the place will swell and ulcerate in the same way, even
though it he years afterwai'ds. For fear of offending them, even in
speaking, it is never said that a man has been bitten byasnake, but
onh that he has been "scratched by a brier." Most of the beliefs ami
customs in this connection have more special reference to the rattle-
snake.
The rattlesnake is called utsa'ndti, which may In' rendered, "he has
a bell," alluding to the rattle. According to a myth given elsewhere,
he was once a man. and was transformed to his present shape that lie
mighl save the human face from extermination by the Sun. a mission
which he accomplished successfully after others had failed. By the
old men he is also spoken of as "the Thunder's necklace" (see the
story of Ontsaiyi'), and to kill one is to destroy one of the most prized
ornaments of the thunder god. In one of the formulas addressed to
the Little Men. the sons of the Thunder, they are implored to take
the disease snake to themselves, because "it is just what you adorn
yourselves with."
For obvious reasons the rattlesnake is regarded as the chief of the
snake tribe and is feared ami respected accordingly. Few Cherokee
will venture to kill one except under absolute necessity, and even then
the crime must he atoned for by asking pardon of the snake ghost,
either in person or through the mediation of a priest, according to a set
formula. Otherwise the relatives of the dead snake will send one of
their number to track up the offender and bite him so that he will die
(see story. "The Rattlesnake's Vengeance "). The only thine- of which
the rattlesnake is afraid is -aid to be the plant known a- campion, or
""rattlesnake's master" (Silent stellata), which b used by the doctors
to counteract the effect of the bite, and it is believed that a snake will
lice in terror from the hunter who carries a -mall piece of the root
about his person, ('hewed linn bark b also applied to the bite, perhaps
from tin' supposed occult connection between the snake and the thun-
der, as this tree is said to be immune from the lightning stroke.
Notwithstanding the fear of the rattlesnake, his rattle-, teeth, flesh,
and oil are greatly prized for occult or medical uses, the snakes being
killed for this purpose by certain priests who know the necessary rites
and formulas for obtaining pardon. This device for whipping the
devil around the stump, ami incidentally increasing their own re\ enues,
2V>(> MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
is a common trick of Indian medicine men. Outsiders desiring to
acquire this secret knowledge are discouraged by beingtold that it is a
dangerous thing to learn, for the reason that the new initiate is almost
certain to be bitten, in order that the snakes may "try" him to know
if he has correctly learned the formula. When a rattlesnake is killed
the head must be cut off and buried an arm's length deep in the ground
and the body carefully hidden away in a hollow log. If it is left ex-
posed to the weather, the angry snakes will send such torrents of rain
that all the streams will overflow their banks. Moreover, they will tell
their friends, the deer, and the ginseng in the mountains, so that these
will hide themselves and the hunters will seek them in vain.
The tooth of a rattlesnake which has been killed by the priest with
the proper ceremonies while the snake was lying stretched out from
east to west is used to scarify patients preliminary to applying the
medicine in certain ailments. Before using it the doctor holds it
between the thumb and finger of his right hand and addresses it in a
prayer. at the end of which the tooth "becomes alive," when it is ready
for the operation. The explanation is that the tense, nervous grasp of
the doctor causes his hand to twitch and the tooth to move slightly
between his ringers. The rattles are worn on the head, and sometimes
a portion of the flesh is eaten by ballplayers to make them more terri-
ble to their opponents, but it is said to have the bad effect of making
them cross to their wives. From the lower half of the body, thought
to be the fattest portion, the oil is extracted and is in as great repute
among the Indians for rheumatism and sore joints as among the white
mountaineers. The doctor who prepares the oil must also eat the
flesh of the snake. In certain seasons of epidemic a roasted (barbe-
cued) rattlesnake was kept hanging up in the house, and every morn-
ing the father of the family bit off a small piece andchewed it, mixing
it then with water, which he spit upon the bodies of the others to pre-
serve them from the contagion. It was said to be a sure cure, but apt
to make the patients hot tempered.
The copperhead, wd'dige-askd'U, "brown-head," although feared on
account of its poisonous bite, is hated, instead of being regarded with
veneration, as is the rattlesnake. It is believed to be a descendant of
a great mythic serpent (sec number 5) and is said to have ••eyes of
fire," on account of their intense brightness. The blacksnake is called
ffide'gi, "the climber." Biting its body is said to be a preventive of
toothache, and there is also a belief, perhaps derived from the whites.
that if the body of one be hung upon a tree it will bring rain within
three (four?) days. The small greensnake is called tsdlifotod'yl, the same
name being also applied to a certain plant, the Eryngvum virgmianum,
or bear grass, whose long, slender leaves bear some resemblance to a
greensnake. As with the blacksnake. it is believed that toothache
may be prevented and sound teeth insured as long as life lasts by
mooney] THE SNAKE TRIBE 297
biting the greensnake along it- body. It must bo held bv the head
and tail, and :ill the teeth ;it once pressed down four times along the
middle of it- body, bul without biting into the flesh or injuring the
snake. Some informants say that the operation must be repeated
four times upon as many snakes and that a certain food tabu must
also be observed. The water moccasin, kanegwd'ti, is not specially
regarded, but a very rare wood snake, said to resemble it except that
it has blue eves, is considered to have great supernatural powers,
in what way is not specified. The repulsive hut harmless spreading
adder (Heterodori) is called daWcstA', "vomiter," mi account of its
habit of spitting, and sometimes kwanddya' hH, a word of uncertain
etymology. It was formerly a man. hut was transformed into a snake
in order to accomplish the destruction of the Daughter of the Sun
(see the story). For its failure on this occasion it is generally
despised.
The Wahnenauhi manuscript mentions a legend of a greal serpent
called on account of its color the "ground snake." To set' it was an
omen of death to the one who saw it. and if it was seen by several per-
sons some great tribal calamity was expected. For traditions and
beliefs in regard to the Uktena. the Uksuhi, and other mythic ser-
pents, see under those headings.
50. THE UKTENA AND THE ULONSO'TI
Long ago — Mlahi'yit — when the Sun became angry at the people
on earth and sent a sickness to destroy them, the Little Men changed
a man into a monster snake, which they called Uktena, ■"The Keen
eyed." and sent him to kill her. He failed to do the work, and the
Rattlesnake had to lie -cut instead, which made the Uktena so jealous
and angry that the people were afraid of him and had him taken up
to Galunlati, to stay with the other dangerous things. 1 He left others
behind him. though, nearly as large and dangerous as himself, and
they hide now in deep pools in the river and about lonely passes in
the high mountains, the places which the Cherokee call •"Where the
Uktena stays."
Those who know say that the Uktena is a great snake, a- large around
a- a tree trunk, with horns on its head, and a bright, blazing crest like
a diamond upon its forehead, and scales glittering like sparks of fire.
It has rings or spot.- of color along its whole length, and can not lie
wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because
under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is
called I'l '"nisi)' ti, "Transparent," and he who can win it may become
the greatest wonder worker of the tribe, hut it is worth a man's life
to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the
bright light that he run- toward the snake instead of trying toe-cape.
' Sec -'I'll.. Daughter of tl
298 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
Even to see the Ukfcena asleep is death, uot to the hunter himself, but
to hi* family.
Of all the daring warriors who nave started out in search of the
Ulunsu'ti only Agan-uni'tsi ever came back successful. 1 The East
Cherokee still keep the one which he brought. It is like a large trans-
parent crystal, nearly the shape of a cartridge bullet, with a blood-red
streak running through the center from top to bottom. The owner
keeps it wrapped in a whole deerskin, inside an earthen jar hidden
away in a secret cave in the mountains. Every seven days he feeds it
with the blood of small game, rubbing the blood all over the crystal
as soon as the animal has been killed. Twice a year it must have the
blood of a deer or some other large animal. Should he forget to feed
it at the proper time it would come out from its cave at night in a shape
of fire and fly through the air to slake its thirst with the lifeblood of
the conjurer or some one of his people. He may save himself from
this danger by telling it, when he puts it away, that he will not need
it again for a long time. It will then go quietly to sleep and feel no
hunger until it is again brought out to be consulted. Then it must be
fed again with blood before it is used.
No white man must ever see it and no person but the owner will
venture near it for fear of sudden death. Even the conjurer who
keeps it is afraid of it. and changes its hiding place every once in a
while so that it can not learn the way out. When he dies it will be
buried with him. Otherwise it will come out of its cave, like a blazing
star, to search for his grave, night after night for seven years, when,
if still not able to find him. it will go back to sleep forever where he
has placed it.
Whoever owns the Ulunsu'ti is sure of success in hunting, love, rain-
making, and every other business, but its great use is in life prophecy.
When it is consulted for this purpose the future is seen mirrored in
the clear crystal as a tree is reflected in the quiet stream below, and
the conjurer knows whether the sick man will recover, whether the
warrior will return from battle, or whether the youth will live to be
old.
51. AGAN-UNI'TSl'S SEARCH FOR THE UKTENA
In one of their battles with the Shawano, who are all magicians, the
Cherokee captured a great medicine-man whose name was Agan-
uni'tsi. "The Ground-hogs* Mother." They had tied him ready for the
torture when he begged for his life and engaged, if spared, to find for
them the great wonder worker, the Ulunsu'ti. Now. the Ulunsu'ti is
like a blazing star set in the forehead of the great Uktena serpent,
and the medicine-man who could possess it might do marvelous things,
but everyone knew this could not be, because it was certain death to
See tin' next story.
VGAN-UNl'TSl AM) THE UKTENA 299
inert the Uktena. They warned him of all this, but he onlj answered
that his medicine was strong and he was not afraid. So they gave him
his life "ii that condition and he began the search.
The Uktena used to lie in wait in lonely places to surprise its vic-
tims, and especially haunted the dark passes of the Great Smok}
mountains. Knowing this, the magician went li i .-. t to a gap in the
range on the far northern border of the Cherokee country. He
searched and found there a monster blacksnake, larger than had ever
been known before, but ii was not what he was looking for, and he
laughed at it as something too small for notice. Coming southward
tn the next gap he found there a great moccasin snake, the largest
ever seen, but when the people wondered he said it was nothing. In
the next gap he found a greensnake and called the people to see "the
pretty salikwS'yi," but when they found an immense greensnake
coiled up in the path they ran away in fear. Coming on t<> U'tawa-
gun'ta, the Bald mountain, he found there a great diya'hali (lizard)
basking, but, although it was large and terrible t<> look at, it was not
what he wanted and lie paid no attention to it. Going still south to
Walasi'vi. the Frog place, he found a great frog squatting in the gap,
but when the people who came to see it were frightened like the
others and ran away from the monster he mocked at them for being
afraid of a frog and went on to the next gap. He went on to Duni-
skwa'lgun'yi, the Gap of the Forked Antler, and to the enchanted lake
of Ataga'hl, and at each he found monstrous reptiles, hut he said they
were nothing. He thought the Uktena might he hiding in the deep
water at Tlanusi'vi, the Leech place, on Hiwassee, where other strange
things had been seen before, and going there he dived far down under
the surface. He saw turtles and water snakes, and two immense sun-
percb.es rushed at him and retreated again, hut that was all. Other
places he tried, going always southward, and at last on Gahu'ti
mountain he found the Uktena asleep.
Turning without noise, he ran swiftly down the mountain side as
far as he could go with one lone- breath, nearly to the bottom of the
slope. There he stopped and piled up a great circle of pine tone-.
and inside of it he dug a deep trench. Then he set tire to the cones
and came hack again up the mountain.
The Uktena was still asleep, and. putting an arrow to his bow,
Agan-uni'tsi shot and sent the arrow through its heart, which was
under the seventh -pot from the serpent's head. The great snake
raised his head, with the diamond in front Hashing tire, and came
straight at his enemy, but the magician, turning quickly, ran at full
speed down the mountain, cleared the circle of tire and the trench at
one bound, and lay down on the ground inside.
The Uktena tried to follow, but the arrow was through his heart.
and in another moment he rolled over in his death struggle, spitting
300 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [bth.akn.19
poison over all the mountain side. But the poison drops could not
pass the circle of fire, l>ut only hissed and sputtered in the blaze, and
the magician <>n the inside was untouched except by one small drop
which struck upon his head as he lay close to the ground; hut he did
not know it. The blood, too. as poisonous as the froth, poured from
the Uktena's wound and down the slope in a dark stream, hut it ran
into the trench and left him unharmed. The dying monster rolled
over and over down the mountain, breaking down large trees in its
path until it reached the bottom. Then Agan-uni'tsi called every bird
in all the woods to come to the feast, and so many came that when they
were done not even the bones were left.
After seven days he went by night to the spot. The body and the
bones of the snake were gone, all eaten by the birds, but he saw a
bright light shining in the darkness, and going over to it he found,
resting on a low-hanging branch, where a raven had dropped it, the
diamond from the head of the Uktena. He wrapped it up carefully
and took it with him. and from that time he became the greatest medi-
cine-man in the whole tribe.
When Agan-uni'tsi came down again to the settlement the people
noticed a small snake hanging from his head where the single drop of
poison from the Uktena had struck; but so long as he lived he him-
self never knew r that it was there.
Where the blood of the Uktena had tilled the trench a lake formed
afterwards, and the water was black and in this water the women used
to dye the cane splits for their baskets.
52. THE RED MAN AND THE UKTENA .
Two brothers went hunting together, and when they came to a good
camping place in the mountains they made a tire, and while one gath-
ered bark to put up a shelter the other started up the creek to look for
a deer. Soon he heard a noise on the top of the ridge as if two animals
were fighting. He hurried through the bushes to see what it might
be, and when he came to the spot he found a great uktena coiled
around a man and choking him to death. The man was fighting for
his life, and called out to the hunter: "Help me. nephew; he is your
enemy as well as mine." The hunter took good aim, and, drawing
the arrow to the head, sent it through the body of the uktena, so that
the blood spouted from the hole. The snake loosed its coils with a
snapping noise, and went tumbling down the ridge into the valley,
tearing up the earth like a water spout as it rolled.
The stranger stood up, and it was the Asga'va Gi'gagei, the Red
Man of the Lightning. He said to the hunter: " You have helped me.
and now I will reward you. and give you a medicine so that you can
always find game." They waited until it was dark, and then went
down the ridjje to where the dead uktena had rolled, but bv this time
THE HUNTER ami THE ['K-r'KI 301
the birds and insects had eaten the body and only the bones were left..
In one place were flashes of light coming up from the ground, and on
digging bere, just under the surface, the Red Man found a scale of the
uktena. Next be wen( over to a tree thai had been struck by light
ning, and gathering a handful of splinters he made a fire and burned the
uktena scale to a coal. He wrapped this in a piece of deerskin and
gave it to the hunter, saying: "As long as you keep this you can
always kill game." Then he told tin' hunter that when he went hack
to camp he must hangup the medicine on a tree outside, because it
was very strong and dangerous. He told him also that when he went
into the cabin he would find his brother lying inside nearly dead mi
account of the presence of the uktena's scale, hut he must take a small
piece of cane, which the Red Man gave him. and scrape a little of it
into water and give it to his brother to drink and lie would he well
again. Then the Red Man was gone, and the hunter could not see
where he went. He returned to camp alone, and found his brother
very sick, but soon cured him with the medicine from the cane, and
that day and the next, and every day after, he found game whenever
he went for it.
53. THE HUNTER AND THE UKSU'HI
A man living down in Georgia came to visit some relatives at Hick-
ory-log. He was a great hunter, and after resting in the house a day
or two got ready to go into the mountains. His friends warned him
not to go toward the north, as in that direction, near a certain large
uprooted tree, there lived a dangerous monster uksu'hi snake. It kept
constant watch, and whenever it could spring upon an unwary hunter it
would coil about him and crush out his life in its folds and then drag
the dead body down the mountain side into a deep hole in Hiwassee.
He listened quietly to the warning, but all they said only made him
the more anxious to see such a monster, so, without saying anything
of his intention, he left the settlement and took his way directly up
the mountain toward the north. Soon he came to the fallen tree and
(limbed upon the trunk, and there, sure enough, on the other side was
the great uksu'hi stretched out in the grass, with its head raised, but
looking the other way. It was about so large [making a circle of a
foot in diameter with his hands]. The frightened hunter got down
again at once and started to run; but the snake had heard the noise and
turned quickly and was after him. Up the ridge the hunter ran, the
snake close behind him, then down the other side toward the river.
With all his running the uksu'hi gained rapidly, and just as he reached
the low ground it caught up with him and wrapped around him. pin-
ning one arm down by his side, but leaving the other free.
Now it gave him a terrible squeeze that almost broke his ribs, and
then began to drag him along toward the water. With his free hand
•"'Hi' MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [ETH.
the hunter clutched at the bushes as they passed, l>ut the snake turned
its head and blew its sickening breath into his face until he had to let
go his hold. Again and again this happened, and all the time they
were getting nearer to a deep hole in the river, when, almost at the
last moment, a lucky thought came into the hunter's mind.
He was sweating all over from his hard run across the mountain,
and suddenly remembered to have heard that snakes can not bear the
smell of perspiration. Putting his free hand into his bosom he worked
it around under his armpit until it was covered with perspiration.
Then withdrawing it he grasped at a bush until the snake turned its
head, when he quickly slapped his sweaty hand on its nose. The
uksu'hi gave one gasp almost as if it had been wounded, loosened its
coil, and glided swiftly away through the bushes, leaving the hunter,
bruised but not disabled, to make his way home to Hickory-log.
54. THE USTO'TLl
There was once a great serpent called the Ustu'tli that made its haunt
upon Cohutta mountain. It was called the Ustu'tli or "•foot" snake,
because it did not glide like other snakes, but had feet at each end of
its body, and moved by strides or jerks, like a great measuring worm.
These feet were three-cornered and flat and could hold on to the ground
like .suckers. It had no legs, but would raise itself up on its hind feet.
with its snaky head waving high in the air until it found a good place
lo take a fresh hold; then it would bend down and grip its front feet
to the ground while it drew its body up from behind. It could cross
rivers and deep ravines by throwing its head across and getting a grip
with its front feet and then swinging its body over. Wherever its
footprints were found there was danger. It used to bleat like a young
fawn, and when the hunter heard a fawn bleat in the woods he never
looked for it, but hurried away in the other direction. Up the moun-
tain or down, nothing could escape the Ustu'tli's pursuit, but along the
side of the ridge it could not go, because the great weight of its swing-
ing head broke its hold on the ground when it moved sideways.
It came to pass after a while that not a hunter about Cohutta would
venture near the mountain for dread of the Ustu'tli. At last a man
from one of the northern settlements came down to visit some rela-
tives in that neighborhood. When he arrived thi'y made a feast for
him. but had only corn and beans, and excused themselves for having
no meat because the hunters were afraid to go into the mountains. He
asked the reason, and when they told him he said he would go himself
to-morrow and either bring in a deer or find the Ustu'tli. They tried
to dissuade him from it, but as he insisted upon going they warned him
that if he heard a fawn bleat in the thicket he must run at once and if
the snake came after him he must not try to run down the mountain,
but alone the side of the ridare.
THE rMi'Ti.f 303
In the morning he started ou1 and went directly toward the moun-
tain. Working hi- way through the bushes :ii the base, lie suddenly
heard a fawn Meat in front. He guessed at once that it was 1 1 1 * ■ Cstu'tlt,
l>ut he had made up his mind to see it, so he did not turn back, but went
straight forward, and there, sure enough, was the monster, with itsgreal
head in the air, as high as the pine branches, looking in >-\ ery direction
to discover a deer, or maybe a man. for breakfast. It -aw him ami
came sit him at once, moving in jerky strides, every one the length of
a tii',' trunk, holding its scaly head high above the bushes and bleating
as it came.
The hunterwas so badly frightened that he lost his wits entirely and
started to run directly up the mountain. The great snake came after
him. gaining half its length on him every time it took a fresh grip with
it- fore feet, and would have caught the hunter before he reached the
top of the ridge, but that he suddenly remembered the warning and
changed his course to run alone- the sides of the mountain. At once
the snake began to lose ground, for every time it raised itself up the
weight of its body threw it out of a straight line and made it fall a little
lower down the side of the ridge. It tried to recover itself, but now
the hunter gained and kept on until he turned the end of the ridge and
left the snake out of sight. Then he cautiously climbed to the topand
looked over and saw the I'stu'tli still slowly working its way toward
the summit.
He went down to the base of the mountain, opened hi- lire pouch.
and set fire to the grass and leaves. Soon the tire ran all around the
mountain and began to climb upward. When the great snake smelled
the smoke and saw the flames coming it forgot all about the hunter
and turned to make all speed for a high cliff near the summit. It
reached the rock and got upon it. but the fire followed and caught the
dead pines about the base of the cliff until the heat made the I'stu'tH's
scales crack. Taking a close grip of the rock with its hind feet it
raised its body and put forth all its strength in an effort to spring
across the wall of tire that surrounded it. but the .-moke choked it and
its hold loosened and it fell among the blazing pine trunks and lay
there until it wa- burned to ashes.
55. THE UW'TSUN'TA
At Nun'daye' li. the wildest spot on Nantahala river, in what i- now
Macon county. North Carolina, where the overhanging cliff is highest
and the river far below, there lived in the old time a great snake called
the Uw'tsflfi'ta or ••bouncer." because it moved by jerks like a measur
ing worm, with only one part of its body on the ground at a time. It
stayed generally on the east side, where the .sun came first in the
morning, and used to cross by reaching over from the highest point of
the cliff until it could get a grip on the other side, when it would pull
304 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
over the rest of its body. It was so immense that when it was thus
stretched across its shadow darkened the whole valley below. For a
long time the people did not know it was there, but when at last they
found out al>out it they were afraid to live in the valley, so that it was
deserted even while still Indian country.
56. THE SNAKE BOY
There was a boy who used to go bird hunting every day. and all the
birds he brought home lie gave to his grandmother, who was very
fond of him. This made the rest of the family jealous, and they
treated him in such fashion that at last one day he told his grand-
mother lie would leave them all, but that .she must not grieve for
him. Next morning he refused to eat any breakfast, hut went off
hungry to the woods and was gone all day. In the evening he
returned, bringing with him a pair of deer horns, and went directly
to the hothouse (asi), where his grandmother was waiting for him.
He told the old woman he must be alone that night, so she got up and
went into the house where the others were.
At early daybreak she came again to the hothouse and looked in,
and there she saw an immense uktena that filled the asi, with horns
on its head, but still with two human legs instead of a snake tail. It
was all that was left of her boy. He spoke to her and told her to
leave him, and she went away again from the door. When the sun
was well up, the uktena began slowly to crawl out, but it was full
noon before it was all out of the asi. It made a terrible hissing noise
as it came out, and all the people ran from it. It crawled on through
the settlement, leaving a broad trail in the ground behind it, until it
came to a deep bend in the river, where it plunged in and went under
the water.
The grandmother grieved much for her boj-, until the others of the
family got angry and told her that as she thought so much of him she
ought to go and stay with him. So she left them and went along the
trail made by the uktena to the river and walked directly into the
water and disappeared. Once after that a man fishing near the place
saw her sitting on a large rock in the river, looking just as she had
always looked, but as soon as she caught sight of him she jumped into
the water and was gone.
57. THE SNAKE MAN
Two hunters, both for some reason under a tabu against the meat of
a squirrel or turkey, had gone into the woods together. When even-
ing came they found a good camping place and lighted a fire to prepare
their supper. One of them had killed several squirrels during the
day, and now got ready to broil them over the fire. His companion
warned him that if he broke the tabu and ate squirrel meat he would
mooney] SNAKE TALKS 305
become a snake, but the other laughed and said that was only a con
jurer's story. I If went <>n with his preparation, and when the squirrels
were roasted made liis supper of them and then lay clown beside the
fire to sleep.
Late that night bis companion was aroused by groaning, and on
Looking around be found the other lying on the ground rolling and
twisting in agony, and with the lower part of his body already changed
to the body ami tail of a large water snake. The man was still aide to
speak and called loudly for help, hut his companion could do nothing,
hut only sit by and try to comfort him while he watched the arms sink
into the body and the skin take on a scaly change that mounted grad-
ually toward the neck, until at last even the head was a serpent's head
and the great snake crawled away from the tire and down the hank
into the river.
58. THE RATTLESNAKE'S VENGEANCE
One day in the old times when we could still talk with other crea-
tures, while some children were playing about the house, their mother
inside heard them scream. Running out she found that a rattlesnake
had crawled from the grass, and taking up a stick she killed it. The
father was out hunting- in the mountains, and that evening when com-
ing home after dark through the gap lie heard a strange wailing sound.
Looking about he found that he had come into the midst of a whole
company of rattlesnakes, which all had their mouths open and seemed
to he crying. He asked them the reason of their trouble, and they
told him that his own wife had that day killed their chief, the Yellow
Rattlesnake, and they were just now about to send the Black Rattle-
snake to take revenge.
The hunter said he was very sorry, hut they told him that if he
spoke the truth he must be ready to make satisfaction and give his
wife as a sacrifice for the life of their chief. Not knowing what might
happen otherwise, he consented. They then told him that the Black
Rattlesnake would go home with him and coil up just outside the
door in the dark. He must go inside, where he would rind his wife
awaiting him, and ask her to get him a drink of fresh water from the
spring. That was all.
He went home and knew that the Black Rattlesnake was following.
It was night when he arrived and very dark, hut he found his wife
waiting with his supper ready. He sat down and asked for a drink of
water. She handed him a gourd full from the jar. hut he said he
wanted it fresh from the spring, so she took a bowl and went out of the
door. The next moment he heard a cry, and going out he found that
the Black Rattlesnake had bitten her and that she was already dying.
He stayed with her until she was dead, when the Black Rattlesnake
came out from the grass again and said his tribe was now satisfied.
lft eth— 01 20
306 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
He then taught the hunter a prayer song, and said. "When you meet
any of us hereafter sing this song and we will not hurt you; but if by
accident one of us should bite one of your people then sing this song
over him and he will recover." And the Cherokee have kept the song
to this day.
59. THE SMALLER REPTILES— FISHES AND INSECTS
There are several varieties of frogs and toads, each with a different
name, but there is very little folklore in connection with them. The
common green frog is called wald'si, and among the Cherokee, as among
uneducated whites, the handling of it is thought to cause warts, which
for this reason are called by the same name, wald'si. A solar eclipse
is believed to be caused bj r the attempt of a great frog to swallow
the sun, and in former times it was customary on such occasions to
fire guns and make other loud noises to frighten away the frog. The
smaller varieties are sometimes eaten, and on rare occasions the bull-
frog also, but the meat is tabued to ball players while in training, for
fear that the brittleness of the frog's bones would be imparted to
those of the player.
The land tortoise (tufat') is prominent in the animal myths, and is
reputed to have been a great warrior in the old times. On account of
the stoutness of its legs ball players rub their limbs with them before
going into the contest. The common water turtle (sdligu'ffi), which occu-
pies so important a place in the mythology of the northern tribes,
is not mentioned in Cherokee myth or folklore, and the same is true
of the soft-shelled turtle {u'lana'wa), perhaps for the reason that
both are rare in the cold mountain streams of the Cherokee country.
There are perhaps half a dozen varieties of lizard, each with a dif-
ferent name. The gray road lizard, or dAy&MJA (alligator lizard. Sa I-
oporti* viiiluhrtm), is the most common. On account of its habit of
alternately puffing out and drawing in its throat as though sucking,
when basking in the sun, it is invoked in the formulas for drawing
out the poison from snake bites. If one catches the first diva/hall
seen in the spring, and, holding it between his fingers, scratches his
legs downward with its claws, he will see no dangerous snakes all sum-
mer. Also, if one be caught alive at any time and rubbed over the
head and throat of an infant, scratching the skin very slightly at the
same time with the claws, the child will never be fretful, but will sleep
quietly without complaining, even when sick or exposed to the rain.
This is a somewhat risky experiment, however, as the child is liable
thereafter to go to sleep wherever it may be laid down for a moment,
so that the mother is in constant danger of losing it. According to
some authorities this sleep lizard is not the diya'hali, but a larger
variety akin to the next described.
The gi<jd-tstilii/Il ("bloody mouth," Pleistodonl) is described as a
i sey] LIZARDS AND FISHES 307
very large lizard, Dearly as large as a water dog, with the throat and
corners of the mouth red, as though from drinking blood. It is
believed to be not a time lizard but a transformed ugUnste'U fish
(described below) on account of the similarity of coloring and the fact
that the fish disappears about the time the giga^tsuha''!! begins to
come out. It is ferocious and a hard biter, and pursues other lizards.
In dr\ weather it cries or makes a noise like a cicada, raising itself
up as it cries. It has a habit of approaching near to where some per-
son is sitting or standing, then halting and looking fixedly at him, and
constantly puffing out its throat until its head assumes a bright fed
color. It is thought then to he sucking the Mood of its victim, ami is
dreaded and shunned accordingly. The small scorpion lizard (i*<hi, ' m)
is sometimes called also gigd-danegi'ski, "blood taker." It is a striped
lizard which frequents sandy beaches and resemble the diva'hali. hut is
of a brown color. It is believed also to he sucking blood in some mys-
terious way whenever it nods its head, and if its heart he eaten by a
doe- that animal will he able to extract all the nutrient properties from
food by simply looking at those who are eating.
The small spring lizard (dv/w&'gd), which lives in springs, is supposed
to cause rain whenever it crawls out of the spring. It is frequently
invoked in the formulas. Another spring (?) lizard, red. with black
spots, is called ddgan' tiV or aniganti'ski '''the rain maker." because its
cry is said to brine- rain. The water dog (tsuwd', mud puppy, Meno-
poma or Protonopsis) is a very large lizard, or rather salamander,
frequenting muddy water. It is rarely eaten, from an unexplained
belief that if one who has eaten its meat goes into the field immediately
afterward the crop will be ruined. There are names for one or two
other varieties of lizard as well as for the alligator (tsula'ski), but no
folklore in connection with them.
Although the Cherokee country abounds in swift-flowing streams
well stocked with fish, of which the Indians make free use, there is but
little fish lore. A number of " dream " diseases, really due to indiges-
tion, are ascribed to revengeful fish ghosts, and the doctor usually
tries to effect the cure by invoking some larger fish or fish-eating bird
to drive out the ghost.
Toeo creek, in Monroe county. Tennessee, derives its name from a
mythic monster fish, the Dakwa', considered the father of all the fish
tribe, which is said to have lived formerly in Little Tennessee river at
that point (see story, "The Hunter and the Dakwa'"). A fish called
1/,/i'n/sf, '//, ■■ having horns." which appears only in spring, is believed to
lie transformed later into the giga-tsuha'li lizard, already mentioned.
The fish is described as having horns or projections upon its nose and
beautiful red spots upon its head, and as being attended or accompanied
by many smaller red fish, all of which, including the ugunste'li, are
accustomed to pile up small stones in the water. As the season
308 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth. ann. ui
advances it disappears and is believed then to have turned into a giga-
tsuha' 11 lizard, the change beginning at the head and finishing with the
tail. It is probably the Cam/postoma or stone roller, which is con-
spicuous for its bright coloring in early spring, but loses its tints after
spawning. The meat of the sluggish hog-sucker is tabued to the ball
player, who must necessarily be active in movement. The fresh-water
mussel is called ddgH'nd, and the same name is applied to certain pim-
ples upon the face, on account of a fancied resemblance. The ball
player rubs himself with an eel skin to make himself slippery and hard
to hold. and. according to the Wahnenauhi manuscript, women
formerly tied up their hair with the dried skin of an eel to make it
grow long. A large red crawfish called tsiska' gili, much resembling
a lobster, is used to scratch young children in order to give them a
strong grip, each hand of the child being lightly scratched once with
the pincer of the living animal. A mother whose grown son had
been thus treated when an infant claimed that he could hold anything
with his thumb and ringer. It is said, however, to render the child
quarrelsome and disposed to bite.
Of insects there is more to be said. The generic name for all sorts
of small insects and worms is tsgdya, and according to the doctors, who
had anticipated the microbe theory by several centuries, these tsgaya
are to blame for nearly every human ailment not directly traceable to
the asgina. of the larger animals or to witchcraft. The reason is plain.
There are such myriads of them everywhere on the earth and in the
air that mankind is constantly destroying them by wholesale, without
mercy and almost without knowledge, and this is their method of
taking revenge.
Beetles are classed together under a name which signifies ''insects
with shells." The little water-beetle or mellow-bug {Dint utes discolor)
is called ddyuni'si, " beaver's grandmother," and according to the
genesis tradition it brought up the. first earth from under the water.
A certain green-headed beetle with horns ( I'limni us carnifex) is spoken
of as the dog of the Thunder boys, and the metallic -green luster upon
its forehead is said to have been caused by striking at the celebrated
mythic gambler, Untsaiyi', " Brass" (see the story). The June-bug
(Allorhina niUda), another green beetle, is tagii, but is frequently
called by the curious name of tu'ya-di'skalaw sti'sM, "'one who keeps
fire under the beans." Its larva is the grubworm which presided
at the meeting held by the insects to compass the destruction of the
human race (see the story, "Origin of Disease and Medicine"). The
large horned beetle (Dynaste* tityux'.) is called fxixtu'na, ••crawfish,"'
a wi', "deer," or gdldg/.'na, " buck," on account of its branching horns.
The snapping beetle (A? at in ni-nliitiiNi) is called tfilsku'wa, '"one that
snaps with his head."
When the Idlu or jar-fly {Cicada avletes) begins to sing in midsum,
KOONEY] INSECTS 309
mer they say: "The jar-fly has brought the beans," his song being
taken as tin- signal that beans are ripe and that green corn is not far
behind. When the katydid (fslMW) is heard a little later thej say,
"Katydid bas brought the roasting-ear bread." The cricket (tdla'tH')
is often called "the barber" (nMtasta/yelsM), on account of its habit of
gnawing hair from furs, and when the Cherokee meet a man with his
hair (dipped unevenly they sometimes ask playfully, "Did the cricket
cut your hair?" (see story, "Why the Possum's Tail is Bare"). Cer-
tain persons are said to drink tea made of crickets in order to become
good singers.
The mole cricket i Crri/llotalpa), so called because it tunnels in the earth
and has hand-like (daws fitted for digging, is known to the Cherokee
a- gtiThw&gi, a word which literally means ••seven." hut is probably
an onomatope. It is reputed among them to he alert, hard to catch,
and an excellent singer, who "never makes mistakes." Like the
crawfish and the cricket, it plays an important part in preparing ) pie
for the duties of life. Infants slow in learning to speak have their
tongues scratched with the (daw of a guTkw&gi, the living insect being
held in the hand during the operation, in order that they may soon
learn to speak distinctly and he eloquent, wise, and shrewd of speech
as they grow- older, and of such quick intelligence as to remember
without effort anything once heard. The same desirable result may
he accomplished with a grown person, hut with much more difficulty,
as in that ease it is necessary to scratch the inside of the throat for
four successive mornings, the insect being pushed down with the fin-
gers and again withdrawn, while the regular tabus must he strictly
observed for the same period, or the operation will he without effect.
In some eases the insect is put into a small bowd of water overnight,
and if —t: ill alive in the morning it is taken out and the water given to
the patient to drink, after which the gul kwagi is set at liberty.
Bees are kept by many of the Cherokee, in addition to the wild bees
which are hunted in the woods. Although they are said to have
come originally from the whites, the Cherokee have no tradition id' a
time when they did not know them; there seems, however, to he no
folklore connected with them. The cow-ant (MyrmicaV), a large, red.
stinging ant. is called properly dastin't&U atatsHn'sM, " stinging ant,"
hut. on account of its hard body-case, is frequently called iv&n'yunu'wl,
•■stone-dress." after a celebrated mythic monster. Strange as it may
seem, there appears to he no folklore connected with either the firefly
or the glowworm, while the spider, so prominent in other tribal
mythologies, appears in hut a single Cherokee myth, where it brings
hack the tire from across the water. In the formulas it is frequently
invoked to entangle in its threads the soul of a victim whom the con-
jurer desires to bring under his evil spells. From a fancied resem-
blance in appearance the name for spider, led' nd net 'sh > . is applied also
310 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.ann.19
to ;i watch or clock. A small yellowish moth which flies about the
fire at night is called b&n'tdwQ,, a name implying that it goes into and
out of the tire, and when at last it flits too near and falls into the blaze
the Cherokee say, "Tufi'tawu is going to bed." On account of its
affinity for the fire it is invoked by the doctor in all "fire diseases,"
including sore eyes and frostbite.
60. WHY THE BULLFROGS HEAD IS STRIPED
According to one version the Bullfrog was always ridiculing the
great gambler Untsai'yi, "Brass," (see the story) until the latter at last
got angry and dared the Bullfrog to play the gatayWsti (wheel-and-
stick) game with him. whichever lost to be scratched on his forehead.
Brass won, as he always did, and the yellow stripes on the Bullfrog's
head show where the gambler's fingers scratched him.
Another story is that the Bullfrog had a conjurer to paint his head
with yellow stripes (brass) to make him appear more handsome to a
pretty woman he was courting.
61. THE BULLFROG LOVER
A young man courted a girl, who liked him well enough, but her
mother was so much opposed to him that she would not let him come
near the house. At last he made a trumpet from the handle of a
gourd and hid himself after night near the spring until the old woman
came down for water. While she was dipping up the water he
put the trumpet to his lips and grumbled out in a deep voice like a
bullfrog's:
Yafldaska'gS hd.flyahu / 8k&,
)'(in<I(iska / !/<1 liihlii<i!iii'sl:a.
The faultfinder will die,
The faultfinder will die.
The woman thought it a witch bullfrog, and was so frightened that
she dropped her dipper and ran back to the house to tell the people
They all agreed that it was a warning to her to stop interfering with
her daughter's aflairs, so she gave her consent, and thus the young
man won his wife.
There is another story of a girl who, every day when she went down
to the spring for water, heard a voice singing, Knuu'in'i tti'tsahyesi',
Kilim' m'l tti'tsahyesi' , "A bullfrog will marry you, A bullfrog will
marry you." She wondered much until one day when she came down
she saw sitting on a stone by the spring a bullfrog, which suddenly
took the form of a young man and asked her to marry him. She
consented and took him back with her to the house. But although he
had the shape of a man there was a queer bullfrog look about his face,
so that the girl's family hated him and at last persuaded her to send
him awav. She told him and he went away, but when they next w T ent
m.h.nky] tiSTSAIYf, THE GAMBLER 31]
down to the spring they heard a voice: Stdtsl tHya'kusi, Stdt&l tH'ya-
husi', '-Your daughter will die, Your daughter will die," and so it
happened spon after.
A.s some tell it. the lover was a tadpole, who took on human shape,
retaining only his tadpole mouth. Toconceal it he constantly refused
to eat with the family, but stood with his back to the tire and his lace
screwed up, pretending that he had a toothache. At last his wife grew
suspicious and turning him suddenly around to the firelight, exposed
the tadpole mouth, at which they all ridiculed him so much that he
left the house forever.
62. THE KATYDID'S WARNING
Two hunters camping in the woods were preparing supper one night
when a Katydid began singing near them. One of them said sneer
ingly, " Ku! It sines and don't know that it will die before the season
end.-." The Katydid answered: " h'1'1 .' nvwi (onomatope); O, so you
say: but you need not boast. You will die before to-morrow night."
The next day they were surprised by the enemy and the hunter who
had sneered at the Katydid was killed.
Wonder Stories
63. UNTSAIYl', THE GAMBLER
Thunder lives in the west, or a little to the south of west, near the
place where the sun goes down behind the water, in the old times he
sometimes made a journey to the east, and once after he had come hack
'from one of these journeys a child was horn in the east who. the people
-aid. was his son. As the hoy grew up it was found that he had scrofula
-ores all over his body. -0 one day his mother said to him. "Your father,
Thunder, is a great doctor. He lives far in the west, hut if you can
find him he can cure you.*''
So the boy set out to find his father and lie cured. He traveled long
toward the west, asking of every one he met where Thunder lived, until
at last they began to tell him that it was only a little way ahead. He
went on and came to Untiguhl', on Tennessee, where lived Untsaiyi'
■' Brass." Now UStsaij ['was a great gambler, and made his living that
way. It was he who invented the gatayHsti game that we play with a
stone wheel and a stick. He lived on the south side of the river, and
everybody who came that way he challenged to play against him. The
large Hat rock, with the line- and grooves where they used to roll the
wheel, is still there, with the wheels themselves and the stick turned
to stone. He won almost every time, because he was SO tricky, so thai
he had his house filled with all kinds of tine things. Sometimes he
would lose, and then he would bet all that he had, even to hi- own
life, hut the winner got nothing for his trouble, for Untsaiyi' knew
how to take on different shapes, so that he always got away.
312 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE [eth.
As soon as Untsaiyi' saw him he asked him to stop and play a while,
but the boy said he was looking for his father. Thunder, and had no
time to wait. ""Well.*' said Untsaiyi', "he lives in the next house;
you can hear him grumbling over there all the time"— he meant the
Thunder -"so we may as well have a game or two before you go on."
Tlir boy said he had nothing to bet. "That's all right." said the
gambler, "we'll play for your pretty spots." He said this to make
the boy angry so that he would play, but still the boy said he must go
first and find his father, and would come back afterwards.
He went on, and soon the news came to Thunder that a boy was
looking for him who claimed to be his son. Said Thunder, ''I have
traveled in many lands and have many children. Bring him here and
we shall soon know." So they brought in the boy, and Thunder showed
him a seat and told him to sit down. Under the blanket on the seat
were long, sharp thorns of the honey locust, with the points all stick-
ing up. but when the boy sat down they did not hurt him. and then
Thunder knew that it was his son. He asked the boy why he had come.
"1 have sores all over my body, and my mother told me you were my
father and a great doctor, and if I came here you would cure me."
"Yes," said his father. "I am a great doctor, and I'll soon fix you."
There was a large pot in the corner and he told his wife to fill it
with water and put it over the fire. When it was boiling, he put in some
roots, then took the boy and put him in with them. He let it boil a
long time until one would have thought that the flesh was boiled from
the poor boy's bones, and then told his wife to take the pot and throw
it into the river, boy and all. She did as she was told, and threw it into
the .water, and ever since there is an eddy there that we call Un'tiguhl',
"Pot-in-the-water." A service tree and a calico bush grew on the
bank above. A great cloud of steam came up and made streaks and
blotches on their bark, and it has been so to this day. When the
steam cleared away she looked over and saw the boy clinging to the
roots of the service tree where they hung down into the water, but
now his skin was all clean. She helped him up the bank, and they
went back to the house. On the way she told him. "When we go in,
your father will put a new dress on you. but when he opens his box
and tells you to pick out your ornaments be sure to take them from
the bottom. Then he will send for his other sons to play ball against
you. There is a honey-locust tree in front of the house, and as soon
as you begin to get tired strike at that and your father will stop the
play, because he does not want to lose the tree."
When they went into the house, the old man was pleased to see the
boy looking so clean, and said. "I knew I could soon cure those spots.
Now we must dress you." He brought out a tine suit of buckskin.
with belt and headdress, and had the boy put them on. Then he
opened a box and said. "Now pick out your necklace and bracelets."
koonei rvrs.viYi'. THE GAMBLER 313
The hoy looked, and the box was full of all kinds of snakes gliding
over each other with their heads up. He was nut afraid, but remem-
bered what tin' woman had told him, and plunged his hand to the bot-
tom and drew out a greal rattlesnake and put it around his neck for a
necklace. He put down his hand again four times and drew up four
copperhead- and twisted them around his wrists and ankles. Then
his father gave him a war club and said. "Now you must play a ball
game with your two elder brothers. They live beyond here in the
Darkening land, and [have sent for them." He said a ball game, but he
meant that the hoy must fight for Ins life. The young men came, and
the\ were both older and stronger than the hoy. but he was not afraid
and fought against them. The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed
at everj stroke, for they were the young Thunders, and the hoy him-
self was Lightning. At last he was tired from defending himself
alone against two. and pretended to aim a blow at the honey-locust
tree. Then his father stopped the tight, because he was afraid the
lightning would split the tree, and he saw that the hoy was brave and
strong.
The hoy told his father how Untsaiyi' had dared him to play, and
had even ottered to play for the spots on his skin. " Yes." said Thun-
der, "he is a great gambler and makes his living that way. hut T will
see that you win.** He brought a small cymling gourd with a hole
bored through the neck, and tied it on the boy's wrist. Inside the gourd
there was a string of heads, and one end hung out from a hole in the
top, hut there was no end to the string inside. " Now,'" said his father,
"go back the way you came, and as soon as he sees you lie will want
to play for the heads. He is very hard to beat, but this time he will
lose every game. When he eric- out for a drink, you will know he is
getting discouraged, and then strike the rock with your war club and
water will come, so that you can play on without stopping. At last
he will bet his life, and lose. Then send at once for your brothers to
kill him, or he will get away, he is so tricky."
The hoy took the gourd and his war (dub and started east along the
road by which he had come. As soon as Untsaiyi' saw him he called
to him. and when he saw the gourd with the head string hanging out
he wanted to play for it. The boy drew out the string, but there
seemed to be no end to it. and he kept o.n pulling until enough had come
out to make a circle all around the playground. "I will play one
game for this much against your stake."" said the boy, ■'and when that
i- over we can have another game."
They began the game with the wheel and stick and tile hoy won.
I Btsaiyi' did not know what to think of it. but he put up another
-take and called for a second game. The hoy won again, and so they
played on until noon, when Untsaiyi' bad lost nearly everything he
had and was about discouraged. It was very hot. ami he said, " I am
314 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Letii. ann. l'j
thirsty," and wanted to stop long enough to get a drink. "No." said
the boy. and struck the rock with his club so that water came out. and
they had a drink. They played on until Untsaiyi' had lost all his buck-
skins and beaded work, his eagle feathers and ornaments, and at last
offered to bet his wife. They played and the boy won her. Then
Untsaiyi' was desperate and offered to stake his life. "If I win I kill
you, but if you win you may kill me." They played and the boy won.
"Let me go and tell my wife," said Untsaiyi', "so that she will
receive her new husband, and then you may kill me." He went into
the house, hut it had two doors, and although the boy waited long
Untsaiyi' did not come back. When at last he went to look for him
he found that the gambler had gone out the back way and was nearly
out of sight going east.
The boy ran to his father's house and got his brothers to help him.
They brought their dog — the Horned Green Beetle — and hurried after
the gambler. He ran fast and was soon out of sight, and they fol-
lowed as fast as they could. After a while they met an old woman
making pottery and asked her if she had seen Untsaiyi' and she said
she had not. "He came this way." said the brothers. "Then he
must have passed in the night," said the old woman, "for I have been
here all day." They were about to take another road when the Beetle,
which had been circling about in the air above the old woman, made
a dart at her and struck her on the forehead, and it rang like brass —
untsaiyi' ! Then they knew it was Brass and sprang at him, but he
jumped up in his right shape and was off, running so fast that he was
soon out of sight again. The Beetle had struck so hard that some of
the brass rubbed off, and we can see it on the beetle's forehead yet.
They followed and came to an old man sitting by the trail, carving
a stone pipe. They asked him if he had seen Brass pass that way and
he said no, but again the Beetle — which could know Brass under any
shape — struck him on the forehead so that it rang like metal, and the
gambler jumped up in hi.s right form and was off again before they
could hold him. He ran east until he came to the great water; then
he ran north until he came to the edge of the world, and had to turn
again to the west. He took every shape to throw them off the track,
but the Green Beetle always knew him, and the brothers pressed him
so hard that at last he could go no more and they caught him just as
he reached the edge of 'the great water where the sun goes down.
They tied his hands and feet with a grapevine and drove a long
stake through his breast, and planted it far out in the deep water.
They set two crows on the end of the pole to guard it and called
the place K&giln'yi, "Crow place." But Brass never died, and can not
die until the end of the world, but lies there always with his face up.
Sometimes lie struggles under the water to get free, and sometimes
the beavers, who are his friends, come and gnaw at the grapevine to
■oonei THE TLA'Nl'WA 315
release him. Then the pole shakes and the crows at the top cry /f<>.'
Ka! Ka! and scare the beavers away.
64. THE NEST OK THE TLA'NUWA
On the north bank of Little Tennessee river, in a bend Inlim the
mouth of ( litico creek, in Blount county, Tennessee, is a high cliff hang-
ing over the water, and about halfway up the lace of the rock is a cave
with two openings. The rock projects outward above the cave, so that
the mouth can not lie seen from above, and it seems impossible to
reach the cave either from above or below. There are white streaks
in the rock from the cave down to the water. The Cherokee call it
Tla nuwa'i. "the place of the Tla'nuwa," or great mythic hawk.
In the old time, away hack soon after the creation, a pair of Tla'nuwas
had their nest in this cave. The streaks in the rock were made by the
droppings from the nest. They were immense birds, larger than any
that live now. and very strong and savage. They were forever flying
up and .low 11 the river, and used to come into the settlements and carry
off dogs and even young children playing near the houses. No one
could reach the nest to kill them, and when the people tried to shoot
them the arrows only glanced off and were seized and carried away in
the talons of the Tla'nuwas.
At last the people went to a great medicine man. who promised to
help them. Some were afraid that if he failed to kill the Tla'nuwas
they would take revenge on the people, but the medicine man said he
could tix that. He made a long rope of linn bark, just as the ( Iherokee
still do. with loops in it for his feet, and had the people let him down
from the top of the cliff at a time when he knew that the old birds were
away. When he came opposite the mouth of the cave he still could
not reach it. because the rock above hung over, so he swung himself
backward and forward several times until the rope swung near enough
for him to pull himself into the cave with a hooked stick that he car-
ried, which he managed to fasten in some bushes growing at the
entrance. In the nest lie found four young ones, and on the floor of
the cave were the hones of all sorts of animals that had been carried
there by the hawks. He pulled the young ones out of the nest and
threw them over the cliff into tin' deep water below, where a greal
I'ktena serpent that lived there finished them. Just then he saw the
two old ones coining, and had hardly time to climb up again to the top
of the rock before they reached the uest.
When they found the nest empty they were furious, ami circled
round and round in the air until they saw the snake put up its head
from the water. Then thej darted straight downward, and while one
seized the snake in his talon- and Hew far up in the sky with it. In-
mate struck at it and bit off piece after piece until nothing was left.
They were -o high up that when the pieces tell they made hole- in the
316 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE Leth.ann.19
rock, which are still to he seen there, at the place which we call " Where
the Tla'nuwa cut it up," opposite the mouth of Citico. Then the two
Tla'nuwas circled up and up until they went out of sight, and they have
never been seen since.
65. THE HUNTER AND THE TLA'NUWA
A hunter out in the woods one day saw a Tla'nuwa overhead and
tried to hide from it, but the great bird had already seen him, and sweep-
ing down struck its claws into his hunting pack and carried him far up
into the air. As it flew, the Tla'nuwa, which was a mother bird, spoke
and told the hunter that he need not be afraid, as she would not hurt
him. but only wanted him to stay for a while with her 3 r oung ones to
guard them until they were old enough to leave the nest. At last
they alighted at the mouth of a cave in the face of a steep cliff. Inside
the water was dripping from, the roof, and at the farther end was a
nest of sticks in which were two young birds. The old Tla'nuwa set
the hunter down and then flew away, returning soon with a fresh-
killed deer, which it tore in pieces, giving the first piece to the hunter
and then feeding the two young hawks.
The hunter stayed in the cave many days until the young birds were
nearly grown, and every day the old mother hawk would fly away from
the nest and return in the evening with a deer or a bear, of which she
always gave the first piece to the hunter. He grew very anxious to
see his home again, but the Tla'nuwa kept telling him not to be uneasy,
but to wait a little while longer. At last he made up his mind to
escape from the cave and finally studied out a plan. The next morn-
ing, after the old bird had gone, he dragged one of the young birds to
the mouth of the cave and tied himself to one of its legs with a strap
from his hunting pack. Then with the fiat side of his tomahawk he
struck it several times in the head until it was dazed and helpless, and
pushed the bird and himself together off the shelf of rock into the air.
They fell far, far down toward the earth, but the air from below
held up the bird's wings, so that it was almost as if they were flying.
As the Tla'nuwa revived it tried to fly upward toward the nest, but the
hunter struck it again with his hatchet until it was dazed and dropped
again. At last they came down in the top of a poplar tree, when the
hunter untied the strap from the leg of the young bird and let it fly-
away, first pulling out a feather from its wing. He climbed down
from the tree and went to his home in the settlement, but when he
looked in his pack for the feather he found a stone instead.
66. U'TLUN'TA, THE SPEAR-FINGER
Long, long ago — httahi'yu — there dwelt in the mountains a terrible
ogress, a woman monster, whose food was human livers. She could
take on any shape or appearance to suit her purpose, but in her right
"1
i'tUN'TA, THE Sl'KAK-FlNCKU .'U 7
form she looked very much like an * > I « 1 woman, excepting that her
whole body was covered with a skin as hard as a rock that qo weapon
could wound or penetrate, and thai on her right hand she had a long,
stony forefinger of bone, like an awl or spearhead, with which she
stabbed everyone to whom she could gel Dear enough. On account of
this fact she was called U'tlUfl'td, " Spear-finger," and on account of
her stony >kin she was sometimes called Nufl'yunu'wi, "Stone dress."
There was another stone-clothed monster that killed people, but that is
a different story.
Spear-finger had such powers over stone that she could easily lift
and carry immense rocks, ami could cement them toe-ether by merely
striking one against another. To get over the rough country more
easily she undertook to build a great rock bridge through the air from
Nunyu'-tlu'gun'yi, the ••Tree rock," on Hiwassee, over to Sanigil&'gi
(Whiteside mountain), on the Blue ridga, and had it well started from
the top of the ••Tree rock" when the lightning struck it and scattered
the fragments alone- the whole ridge, where the pieces can still he -ecu
by those who go there. She used to range all over the mountains
about the heads of the streams and in the dark passes of Nantahala,
always hungry and looking for victims. Her favorite haunt on the
Tennessee side was about the gap on the trail where Chilhowee moun-
tain comes down to the river.
Sometimes an old woman would approach along- the trail where the
children were picking- strawberries or playing near the village, and
would say to them coaxingly. ••Come, my grandchildren, come to your
granny and let granny dress your hair." When some little girl ran
up and laid her head in the old woman's lap to he petted and combed
the old witch would gently run her fingers through the child's hair
until it went to sleep, when she would stab the little one through the
heart or hack of the neck with the long awl finger, which she had kept
hidden under her robe. Then she would take out the liver ami eat it.
She would enter a house by taking the appearance of one of the
family who happened to have gone out for a short time, and would
watch her chance to stab some one with her long finger and take
out his liver. She could stab him without being noticed. and often the
victim did not even know it himself at the time — for it left no wound
and caused no pain — hut went on about his own affairs, until all at
once he felt weak and began gradually to pine away, and was always
sure to die. because Spear-finger had taken his liver.
When the Cherokee went out in the fall, according to their custom,
to hum tin' leaves off from the mountains in order to get the chestnuts
on the ground, they were never safe, for the old witch was always on
the lookout, and as soon as she saw the smoke rise she knew there
were Indians there and sneaked up to try to surprise one alone. So
as well a- they could they tried to keep together, and were very
318 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE
cautious of allowing any stranger to approach the camp. But if one
went down to the spring for a drink they never knew but it might be
the liver eater that came back and sat with them.
Sometimes she took her proper form, and once or twice, when far
out from the settlements, a solitary hunter had seen an old woman, with
a queer-looking hand, going through the woods singing low to herself:
I'ii, 'hi im'ts'iki'l' . Su' si'l' sili' .
Liver, I eat it. Su' sa' sai'.
It was rather a pretty song, but it chilled his blood, for he knew it
was the liver eater, and he hurried away, silently, before she might see
him.
At last a great council was held to devise some means to get rid of
U'tlun'ta before she should destroy everybody. The people came from
all around, and after much talk it was decided that the best way would
be to trap her in a pitfall where all the warriors could attack her at
once. So they dug a deep pitfall across the trail and covered it over
with earth and grass as if the ground had never been disturbed. Then
they kindled a large tire of brush near the trail and hid themselves in
the laurels, because they knew she would come as soon as she saw the
smoke.
Sure enough they soon saw an old woman coming along the trail.
She looked like an old woman whom they knew well in the village, and
although several of the wiser men wanted to shoot at her, the others
interfered, because they did not want to hurt one of their own people.
The old woman came slowly along the trail, with one hand under her
blanket, until she stepped upon the pitfall and tumbled through the
brush to]) into the deep hole below. Then, at once, she showed her
true nature, and instead of the feeble old woman there was the terrible
U'tlun'ta with her stony skin, and her sharp awl linger reaching out in
every direction for some one to stab.
The hunters rushed out from the thicket and surrounded the pit, but
shoot as true and as often as they could, their arrows struck the stony
mail of the witch only to be broken and fall useless at her feet, while
she taunted